You probably don't need to copy that many sentences verbatim -- articles on far more complicated/tenacious subjects are possible without that sort of copying. Use of attributed paraphrasing in this case is a better approach. Take a look at other articles of this sort for examples of this (i.e. [[Gold foil experiment]], which was recently cleaned up and made into a pretty nice little article).

Anyway. You can't use *any* sentences from another publication unless they are *quotes*, and quotes should only be an insubstantial amount of the original text anyway so they qualify as "fair use".

It should be noted, however, that "scientific facts" themselves are *not* copyrightable (that is, you don't have to ask permission to print the speed of light, even if a new number for it came out yesterday). But in this instance I'm not sure that caveate applies.

My suggestion: write the article, using quotes from the original article. Then submit it to peer review and say, "I want to cut down some of the direct quotation used, but I'm not sure ofthe best way to do it. Can you help?" My bet is that somebody will be able to refactor it in a nice way.

FF

On 10/26/05, Uwe Brauer oub@mat.ucm.es wrote:

Hello

Sorry if this article gets posted twice, but I presume my subscription was not complete when I sent the following article.

I am not sure whether this is the right list to ask, if not could somebody please point out to me the appropriate one.

I want to write an article which relies heavily on scientific publications. (I will of course cite the relevant articles at the end of `my' wikipedia article). What I have in mind is a summary of their work, maybe one of ten sentences copied literally. Do I need the permissions of the authors of these article (one author is already dead) or could I avoid that problem in simply not copying even a single sentence verbatim?

Or without their explicit permission I simply could not write about the subject?

Thanks and regards

Uwe Brauer

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I want to write an article which relies heavily on scientific publications. (I will of course cite the relevant articles at the end of `my' wikipedia article). What I have in mind is a summary of their work, maybe one of ten sentences copied literally. Do I need the permissions of the authors of these article (one author is already dead) or could I avoid that problem in simply not copying even a single sentence verbatim?

Or without their explicit permission I simply could not write about the subject?

You may quote these authors without their permission, to some extent.

From [[WP:Wikipedia:Fair use]];

"Brief, attributed quotations of copyrighted text may be used to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea. In general, extensive quotation of copyrighted news materials (such as newspapers and wire services) is not fair use and is prohibited by Wikipedia policy. Extensive quotation from copyrighted media such as movie scripts is also prohibited, as previous "fair use" case law has established that such usage may infringe on the future earnings of the copyright holder (i.e. on their ability to publish a book of said quotations)."

In general, try not to use copyrighted work under fair use unless really necessary. You can present the same facts as a copyrighted text using your own words without violating copyrights. It's the creative work that is protected, not the facts. Also, remember that Wikipedia requires attribution whenever fair use is used.