A 2024 report raised questions about whether the open licences on thousands of papers also covered BioRender-made figures embedded in them. Simon Dürr told Chemistry World that he had flagged 9,277 papers published under CC BY, and 12,059 when including papers under other licences he considered restrictive or similar. Those are attributed counts, not a legal audit or a finding that the papers are unlawful. The issue is that an article’s licence and the terms governing material inside a figure may be separate.
What the reported counts do—and do not—show
In its 28 October 2024 report, Chemistry World attributed the counts to computational enzymologist Simon Dürr. The report does not provide an independently replicated census, a paper-by-paper list sufficient to verify every entry, or a denominator from which to calculate prevalence. It therefore does not establish what share of scientific papers has a licensing problem, nor that every flagged figure was used without permission. Read the report.
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| Reported count | What it refers to | Attribution and qualification |
|---|---|---|
| 9,277 papers | Papers published under CC BY that Dürr said he had flagged. | Simon Dürr, as reported by Chemistry World in 2024; not an independent census or legal determination. |
| 12,059 papers | A broader count that included papers under other licences with commercial-use restrictions or similar conditions. | Simon Dürr, as reported by Chemistry World in 2024; not an independent census or legal determination. |
Dürr told the magazine, “CC-BY allows anyone to reproduce a work for any purpose if attributed correctly.” That describes his position in the dispute, but the practical question is whether the paper’s licence covers each included asset or whether an asset has separate terms. A paper-wide licence statement alone may not answer that.
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A BioRender figure can combine the user’s arrangement and original contributions with icons, templates, or other library material. BioRender’s representative told Chemistry World: “We do not claim ownership of completed figures on the platform, simply that we are looking to maintain our rights to our library icons and templates.” The report presents a dispute about how those rights interact with licences applied to published papers, not a court ruling settling that question.
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BioRender’s current individual terms, for accounts created on or after 16 January 2026, say users own their Science Figures and User Content as between the user and BioRender, subject to BioRender’s continuing rights in BioRender Content. The terms also restrict publishing figures containing BioRender Content on a free account and prohibit using that content outside the application in a way that extracts or redistributes it as standalone material. These are current terms; they should not be assumed to govern figures created or exported under earlier terms. See BioRender’s individual terms.
What BioRender’s current guidance says about publication
BioRender says publication use depends on the plan and type of use. Its help centre states that eligible premium-plan exports can include a publication licence, and its journal guide describes selecting open-access or closed-access publication during export, generating a citation and licence, and keeping the licence for records. Its licensing overview says Basic/free trial and undergraduate plans do not provide journal publication rights, while paid plans have uses tied to plan category. Check the terms and account status that applied to the particular figure rather than relying on today’s general description.
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| Plan or workflow | What current BioRender guidance says |
|---|---|
| Basic/free trial | Does not provide journal publication rights, according to BioRender’s licensing overview. |
| Undergraduate | Does not provide journal publication rights, according to BioRender’s licensing overview. |
| Academic plan | Terms describe academic and not-for-profit publication uses, subject to applicable guidelines. |
| Industry plan | Terms include commercial uses, subject to the applicable plan conditions. |
| Eligible premium-plan export | BioRender says an export may include a publication licence; its journal guide describes choosing open-access or closed-access publication and retaining the generated licence and citation. |
These descriptions come from BioRender, not an independent legal opinion. The applicable plan, export date, publication type, and terms in effect at the time can change the answer. See Understanding your publication rights, BioRender’s journal publishing guide, and its licensing and usage overview.
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Attribution is not a substitute for checking every component
BioRender guidance calls for figure citation or attribution in specified circumstances. Its guidance also says that this does not replace third-party copyright or attribution requirements. A figure may include material sourced outside BioRender—such as photographs, text, or data—with its own rights or credit conditions. A citation to BioRender does not, by itself, establish permission for those other elements. BioRender’s Basic License is relevant to its own stated terms, but does not resolve the rights in independently sourced material.
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How authors and editors can check a specific paper
- Identify the exact figure and its components. Check whether it was made in BioRender, which library elements it contains, and whether photographs, data, text, or other third-party material were added.
- Find the applicable account and export records. Establish the creator’s plan and the figure’s creation or export date. Look for the generated publication licence and citation, if available; current eligibility does not prove what permission applied to an earlier export.
- Read the paper’s licence and journal policy together. Confirm the article’s stated licence and whether the journal allows a figure to carry separate rights or a different licence. Do not assume the paper’s open licence automatically covers every embedded asset.
- Resolve any gap with the relevant parties. Ask the publisher and rights holder about the figure’s permitted use and how it should be credited or labelled. Keep the response and licence documentation with the publication record.
What publishers did, and what remains uncertain
Chemistry World reported in October 2024 that most publishers it approached had yet to act, while eLife had introduced a policy to mark a BioRender image with a licence different from the rest of the paper. That is a time-specific account, not confirmation of current policy at every journal or the present status of every paper. The available reporting does not establish how many papers have since been corrected or resolve the licence question for each flagged figure.
The report also quoted neuroscientist Adam Claridge-Chang of Duke-NUS Medical School saying there was “enough doubt” about copyright issues to lead him to use local artists for complicated figures; for simpler figures, he or colleagues draw them. That illustrates one possible workflow, not a general legal conclusion about BioRender figures.
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