Welcome to
Publishers' Licensing Services
- Our primary remit is to oversee collective licensing in the UK on behalf of publishers for book, journal, magazine and website copying.
- We distributed over £34 million in 2017/18
- We also provide rights management services for UK publishers.
- We are a not-for-profit organisation, set up for the industry, by the industry.
- Our team and Board of Directors.
- Collective Licensing offers a simple and cost effective solution both for those who wish to copy from published materials without breaking the law, and for rights holders where direct licensing would be inefficient and unduly burdensome. Download PDF.
- A blanket licence allows users to copy from a broad range of repertoire in return for a licence fee, so providing convenience and excellent value for money. The licence fee is paid to the rights holders whose publications have been shown to have been copied.
- Read more: Introduction to Collective Licensing.
Check our look-up service
- Are we holding licensing revenues in trust for your titles?
- Use our quick and easy service to find out.
- How to claim.
We also provide:
- PLS Account Manager- free account management service for publishers.
- Permissions Management - including PLSclear, our permissions management tool; Permissions Outsourcing; and practical workshops.
- Access to Research - providing UK library users with access to over 15m+ free academic articles.
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Why sign up?
- Receive fair payment for copying.
- Save having to deal with multiple requests for secondary copying.
- Strengthen and promote copyright awareness.
Tips:
Quick, easy, free:
- Analyse revenues with our new Reports dashboard.
- Upload new titles & manage licensing options.
- Opt in to new licences.
Timetable 2016
- Get information about when licence fee income from licensed sectors is distributed.
- Visit the timetable.
How we distribute licence fee income
- Distribution of licence fees.
- Allocation of licence fee income.
- Administrative deductions.
- View the Charter.
Latest updates
Free ‘Access to Research’ online search service in public libraries is re-launched 7 May 2019‘Llama antibodies’, ‘Chronic fatigue syndrome’ and ‘Electromagnetic radiation’ amongst terms most frequently searched in libraries
Public library users search for an eclectic range of topics when using the Access to Research free online search. The service enables any user in a participating public library to search directly for and print out a copy of any of the more than 15 million journal articles that publishers make available through their participation. The free service is only available in public libraries. 85% of public libraries in the UK currently offer access to the service.
Analysis of the top 20 search terms by month nationwide for 2018 has thrown up an idiosyncratic list of interests, in addition to the perennial concerns of health, history and science. Medical ailments are well represented (‘Caesarean nerve damage’ and ‘Effect tuition fees have on students’ mental health’) but there is also room for the somewhat specialized (‘Llama antibodies’ and ‘Ragwort’).
Local Authorities who have not yet joined the schme should click here
Code of Conduct
Our Code of Conduct
sets out the service
levels publishers can
expect from PLS.
Our services
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I look forward to opening the email from PLS each month. I am often thrilled by the amount.
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Collective licensing provides protection of content, whilst allowing it to be reused and shared.
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Collective licensing helps us identify the strongest titles and widens exposure to our brand.