Scientific Figure

Publication license

A numbered license for every figure you publish

Journals increasingly ask where a figure came from and whether you may use it. Paid plans issue a certificate for each figure: a unique number, the licensee, the generation date, a cryptographic fingerprint, and a public page where an editor can verify it in seconds.

See plansVerify a license

How it works

  1. 1

    Export → Publication license

    In the figure editor or the canvas editor, open Export and choose Publication license. The certificate PDF downloads at once; a second click re-downloads the same number.

  2. 2

    Cite the number

    Add the suggested credit to your figure legend: “Created with scientificfigure.com (License SF-2026-XXXXXX).”

  3. 3

    Anyone can verify

    Editors, reviewers or readers enter the number at scientificfigure.com/verify — or drop a copy of the figure to find its license.

What the certificate records

  • Unique license number with a check character
  • Licensee (your account email) and plan at issuance
  • Generation and issue timestamps (UTC)
  • SHA-256 fingerprint of the stored original
  • Thumbnail, dimensions and figure description
  • QR code and URL of the public verification page

What it means legally

Under Section 4 of our Terms of Service, we assign to you all rights we hold in figures generated for you, for publications, presentations, teaching and commercial work. The certificate is the record of that grant and of provenance. It is not a copyright registration — the copyright status of AI-generated images varies by jurisdiction — and it does not cover third-party material you uploaded.

If someone uses your figure

The record fixes who generated the figure and when. Each license also stores a perceptual fingerprint, so a copy that was resized, recompressed or converted can still be matched back to your license on the verify page. Heavily cropped, flipped or recoloured copies cannot be matched.

Questions

Which plans include it?
Lite, Pro, Plus and credit packs. Free accounts export with a watermark and cannot issue certificates.
Does a certificate cost credits?
No. Issuing and re-downloading a certificate is free on paid plans.
Can I license a figure I made before upgrading?
Yes. The stored figure carries no watermark, so once your account has paid access you can license any figure in your projects.
What if I delete the figure later?
The license record stays and keeps verifying. That is the point of a certificate you may already have handed to a journal.