system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
i want to use a graph from an academic article in my publication. How does this work?

It is a chart of some dry academic stuff. Will academics generally give permission to use it (free) or do i ask the publisher? My other option is to rewrite it, I guess, and present the same material with my own graphics.
gpt
If you're wanting to use a figure from an existing article in a new article there's a well-established process for this in most cases. Go to the website for the original article, and then try to find a link related to Permissions or Rights or Copyright. For example, for RSC journals there's a "Request permissions" link on the right side. Click on that and give the requested information. For the most typical cases, you won't have to pay anything, but there's often a requirement for a Copyright notice, and when you submit your new article you may need to also submit the proof that you got permission to reuse the figure. As another commenter implied, it's weird to use someone else's figure in your work unless you're writing a review or there's another very good reason.

Edit: Changed “reviewer” to “review”