What if the rightsholder never responds to my request?

If a rightsholder does not respond after multiple attempts to contact them or if the rightsholder details are unavailable, it would be best to remove their material and replace it with author's original or other material to avoid further risk or delay in publications.

Below listed are the suggestions for alternate figures/tables:

1. From Wikipedia, https://www.pexels.com/, https://pixabay.com/ which are usually free to use even commercially.
2. From other Elsevier publications (if material is not credited to any other third-party sources), so that permissions can be resolved easily.
3. As Elsevier is a STM signatory publisher, permission can be obtained at free of cost up to 3 figures/tables from a single article/chapter of another STM publisher under STM gratis limit. For more information about STM signatory publishers, please visit here.

For any further clarifications, you can submit your query via our online form.