Q. I wrote an article that was published in a journal. Do I still need to get permission?

It depends on the journal. If a journal has adopted an open-access copyright for the content it publishes you do not need to get permission.

Other journals control the rights to the articles they publish. Your contract will state if the author retains copyright ownership. In some cases your contract will state that you may distribute a prepublication version of your article (a version that has not been formatted for publication by the jounral). Occasionally publishers will also waive copyright fees if you are the author, but permission will need to be requested.