Usage Rights & Licensing
All illustrations are licensed for use, not sold as artwork. This means you receive the right to use your commissioned illustration for the purposes agreed upon at the time of commission, while I retain copyright ownership as the creator — standard practice across the medical illustration industry.
What’s included with every commission:
- High-resolution PNG/JPG files
- Adobe Illustrator source file
- Right to use the figure in the specific publication, thesis, poster, or presentation it was commissioned for — in both print and digital/online form
- Right to use the figure in that publication’s promotional materials (e.g., table of contents, journal cover consideration)
- Deposit of the figure in PubMed Central or your institutional repository, where required by NIH or other funder open-access/public-access mandates
- A credit line in the figure legend or acknowledgments (“Illustration by Soheil Zamen Milani”)
What requires a separate license:
- Reuse of the figure in a second, different publication
- Commercial use (marketing, advertising, product packaging)
- Exclusive rights (preventing reuse of the design elements in my portfolio)
- Full copyright transfer / work-for-hire arrangements
- Use in a commercial textbook or by a publisher (as opposed to a journal article)
- Use in training AI/machine-learning image models
If your intended use isn’t listed above, tell me what you have in mind and I’ll quote it directly — usage-based pricing depends on how widely and for what purpose the image will be used.
License Types
| License | What it covers | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Standard (included) | One journal article/thesis/ poster/presentation, print + digital, worldwide, unlimited duration for that single output. Includes funder open-access repository deposit (e.g., PMC). | Included in base illustration price |
| Extended Use | Reuse of an existing figure in a second, different publication (e.g., a later review article) | +25% of original tier price |
| Commercial Use | Marketing materials, advertising, product packaging, or any for-profit promotional use | +50% of original tier price |
| Exclusive Rights | Client is the only party permitted to use the image; I refrain from reusing it in my own portfolio | +30% of original tier price |
| Full Copyright Transfer | Complete transfer of copyright ownership (work-for-hire), e.g. when a publisher requires it | +100% of original tier price |
| Textbook / Publisher Use | Use in a commercial textbook or by a publishing house | Custom quote based on print run and distribution |
Note on revisions: Requests to substantially update or repurpose a figure after final delivery (e.g., adapting it for a different journal months later) are treated as new work under the appropriate license tier, not as a revision round. See Pricing for revision policy on active projects.
