Permissions FAQs

Copyright laws give an author or creator of an original work the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute or otherwise use that work for a fixed time period. The author may legally assign his or her rights to a third party. In this case, the third party becomes the copyright holder. All standards, periodicals and books produced or published by PMI are PMI copyrighted materials that are protected under copyright law and may require permission from PMI to use.

Permission is authorization from PMI to use PMI materials for non-personal use in order to make copies of PMI copyrighted material or to adapt, paraphrase, or republish part of or an entire work of PMI copyrighted material. If you would like to use any portion of PMI copyrighted material in any media, you must first obtain written permission and pay the appropriate permission fee, where applicable before you can use it for non-personal use.

Any personal use for PMI materials that is not shared or distributed to anyone else does not require written permission from PMI for use. Personal use includes creating personal study aids that are not shared or sold, copying pages for one’s reference, and any other use that is not intended.

If you are still unsure whether or not your use requires permission, you should still request permission.

A request for permission is not an implied grant of use of the requested materials.

You must request permission before you use PMI material for non-personal use. It does not matter if you purchase or obtain the material before or after permission is granted, but you can only use that material for non-personal use after permission has been obtained.

For PMI standards, you must tell us what you wish to do and request permission by completing and submitting our Permissions Form. Please answer each question fully and completely. All requests for PMI standards must be submitted through this form.

Effective August 2013, all requests to use PMI published books (except PMI standards), publications, papers and articles should be submitted through the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service, which is a button called “Reprints and Permissions” found on the item’s web page in the PMI Store (Marketplace). 

Only those requests submitted through the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service do not need to be submitted through the PMI Permissions Form.

Permission must be requested in writing via the PMI Permissions Form or RightsLink service, and include a description of the PMI material to be referenced, the portions of that material which will be referenced, as well as the work in which the PMI material will be used.

The PMI Permissions Form will continue to handle all requests for non-personal use of PMI’s standards, including practice standards and practice guides, as well as any other content not in the PMI Store (Marketplace).

The RightsLink Service will handle all other requests for use of PMI materials, including PMI books, articles, and papers in the PMI Store (Marketplace). See Question 9 for more information.

Any materials that do not have the “Reprints and Permissions” button on the product page should be submitted through the PMI Permissions Form. Access the PMI Permissions Form.   

For requests of PMI standards that are submitted through the PMI Permissions Form and depending upon the complexity of the request, this process can take as little as a week or up to five weeks. To ensure your request is fulfilled in the most timely manner possible, fill out the PMI Permissions Form completely. Please notify us of any deadlines relating to your requested material.

For all other requests of PMI books, articles and papers processed by the RightsLink service, permission is obtained immediately upon submitting your information and providing any applicable payment. For certain requests that are outside of the scope of the RightsLink service, requests will be forwards back to us for processing and you will receive a reply within 7-10 business days.

To apply via the Permissions Form, visit: permissions form

Your completed permissions form will be reviewed in the order that it is received. Following review, a representative of PMI's Legal Department and/or permissions assistant will contact you with additional questions or let you know if your request will be granted, and the amount of the permission fee if any.

Once all terms have been established, a permissions agreement will be prepared and sent to you. When the permissions agreement has been fully executed and the fee paid, the permission will be in force under the terms of the agreement.

To apply for Permission using the RightsLink service, you will need to visit the product page in the PMI Store (Marketplace) and click on the “Reprints and Permissions” button to use the RightsLink service.

The RightsLink service will open as a pop-up window and will request more information on your use of PMI material and contact information. A quote will be provided and upon accepting the licensing and payment terms, you will receive permission for use of that PMI material via RightsLink. If you do not already possess the material, you will need to obtain the material via a separate transaction on PMI.org.

RightsLink does not provide the requested material; it only provides the permission to use it.

No. The RightsLink service is managed by the Copyright Clearance Center, so it does not work with PMI’s membership accounts for sign-in. You will need to create an account with RightsLink which will make it easier to obtain future permissions requests using their system.

If you have questions about using the Rightslink service, please contact Rightslink Customer Support at +1 877 622 5543 or +1 978 777 9929 or email [email protected].

For more information please email PMI Customer Care or call +1 610 356 4600.

Yes. Obtaining permission is a separate transaction from obtaining the material.

Yes. You must credit the original source if you paraphrase. Paraphrasing should not be used to avoid requesting permission from us. We require those who are paraphrasing to request permission to avoid copyright infringement. Please either submit the PMI Permissions Form for PMI standards or for all other PMI publications use the RightLink service on the respective product page.

Yes. Copying the same structure and content of graphics still constitutes as a direct reference. You must credit the original source. PMI requires those who are redrawing figures/tables/graphs to request permission to avoid copyright infringement. Please either submit the PMI Permissions Form for PMI standards or for all other PMI publications use the RightLink service on the respective product page.

Yes. Authors must request permission to reuse material from their own work. However, permission will not be unreasonably withheld. Authors are not required to pay a fee for use of their own work. PMI authors of the Seminars & Symposium Proceedings, congress papers, or the Research Conference Proceedings are not required to request permission from PMI to reuse material from their work. Please either submit the PMI Permissions Form for PMI standards or for all other PMI publications use the RightLink service on the respective product page.

Yes with written permission. We furnish complimentary copies of PMI publications to all PMI members as a benefit of membership. This content is for your personal use and may not be reproduced or disseminated to others. If you would like to reproduce content for non-personal use, submit either the PMI Permissions Form for PMI standards or for all other PMI publications, use RightsLink. 

If you’re not a member, we encourage you to purchase PMI publications from the Store (Marketplace).

Those wishing to post the PMBOK^® Guide or another PMI publication on a secured site must obtain a Site License Agreement and pay the appropriate permission fee. To do this, please complete and submit the PMI Permissions Form. Requests to post PMI materials on public websites are not granted.

We presently offer official translations of the PMBOK^® Guide published in Arabic, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. They are available for purchase in the Marketplace. Therefore, we will not grant permission to translate the PMBOK^® Guide into these languages. However, if you wish to translate it or another PMI standard into a language other than those listed, please submit the PMI Permissions Form

Permission to use the PMI logo will only be granted to those who fill out the PMI Linking Agreement Form. The PMI logo may only be used on websites directly linking the PMI logo to the PMI home page. All other requests for use of the PMI logo will be denied.

No, we do not currently grant permission to use our webinars and video content.