copyright statement for thesis

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Thesis / dissertation formatting manual (2024).

• Filing Fees and Student Status
• Submission Process Overview
• Electronic Thesis Submission
• Paper Thesis Submission
• Formatting Overview
• Fonts/Typeface
• Pagination, Margins, Spacing
• Paper Thesis Formatting
• Preliminary Pages Overview

Copyright Page

• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures (etc.)
• Acknowledgements
• Text and References Overview
• Figures and Illustrations
• Using Your Own Previously Published Materials
• Using Copyrighted Materials by Another Author
• Open Access and Embargoes
• Copyright and Creative Commons
• Ordering Print (Bound) Copies
• Tutorials and Assistance
• FAQ This link opens in a new window

The use of copyright notice is the prerogative of the copyright owner and does not require advance permission from, or registration with, the U.S. Copyright Office. The use of such notice is highly recommended , because it informs the public that the work is protected by copyright, identifies the copyright owner, and shows the year of first publication.

Generally speaking:

• You should include a copyright statement for yourself for this manuscript.
• You must list copyright holders ​if any portion of your manuscript has been previously published (by you or by another author). See  https://guides.lib.uci.edu/gradmanual/previously-published-overview  
• If a copyright statement is not being included, insert a blank page as a substitute. The UCI Libraries strongly recommends that you include a copyright statement.
• Please read the Copyrighted Materials sections (found in the tabs on the left-hand side of this page) for more information.

The notice must contain the following three elements:

• The symbol © (the letter in a circle), or the word "Copyright"
• The year of publication (i.e., the year in which you are filing your manuscript)
• The name of the copyright owner (i.e., your name as it appears on the title page)

Example: © 2015 John Doe

Copyright Page Example

Here is an example Copyright Page if the thesis/dissertation author is the only copyright holder listed.

If you need to list other copyright holders for other material included in your manuscript, those should be listed above your copyright for your graduate manuscript. Here is an example of a copyright page section with multiple copyrights listed:

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Graduate Thesis Submission Guide

• Thesis Guide
• Formatting Requirements
• Submitting Your Thesis
• Managing References
• Database Pro Tips
• Avoiding Plagiarism This link opens in a new window
• Discoverability, Embargo, and the Scholarly Conversation
• Open Access Images
• Requesting Permission for Copyrighted Materials
• Thesis Collection This link opens in a new window

Copyright and Your Thesis

Respecting copyright — and understanding the basics of copyrighted-related issues — is an important aspect of your thesis-writing process and an issue that will continue to arise throughout your academic and creative career. We know copyright can be intimidating and hard to make sense of: after all, discussions of copyright often stray into complex legal, creative, and ethical terrain. While it isn't necessary for you to be a copyright expert, it is essential that you understand copyright issues as they relate to including and referencing the work(s) of others in your thesis. 

With that in mind, here are our overarching recommendations as you consider which third party materials to include in your thesis: 

• Use open access works and/or works covered by Creative Commons Licenses
• Ensure your use of copyrighted materials counts as "fair use" (in other words, repurpose, reinterpret, or otherwise "transform" the copyrighted work in question)
• Request permission for copyrighted works
• Remove potentially problematic materials entirely from your thesis

We recommend you follow the above guidelines in the order that they're listed ; that is, seek out open access works first to avoid any potential copyright infringements. If you are unable to do so, seek fair use for copyrighted materials. If each of these strategies is unsuccessful, your last resort may be to request permission for copyrighted work[s], or to remove problematic third party content from your thesis entirely if this option fails. The following three subpages — Open Access Images, Fair Use, and Requesting Permission for Copyrighted Materials — breaks each of these issues down into greater detail. 

• Image Use and Copyright for your Thesis (Slides)

Why Does Copyright Matter?

For the purposes of your thesis, you don't need to be an expert in copyright law. However, understanding the major issues and questions around copyright will help you make informed decisions about your thesis and protect it from copyright challenges once it's published. Understanding and respecting copyright is also about giving credit where it's due, an essential aspect of Pratt's Academic Integrity Policy . So while respecting copyright has to do with protecting your thesis from infringement challenges, on a deeper level it also has to do with pursuing your academic and creative work with integrity and acknowledgement of other's contributions.

The following excerpt from Kenneth Crews' article  Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis  summarizes this sentiment well: 

" Finishing your dissertation is exhausting and gratifying. You have invested countless days of research, followed by hours of writing late into the night. You made exciting breakthroughs, and you aspire to a career of further research. You probably did not expect to indulge in copyright at this stage of your study. However, attention to copyright can help avoid pitfalls and reveal opportunities to further your scholarly goals. Given the way that the law operates, copyright law most certainly protects your dissertation as well as the quotations, photographs, music, diagrams, and many other works that you have included in your doctoral study. The decisions you make about copyright can directly affect the quality of your work, your ability to publish your dissertation, and your opportunities for building upon your years of research throughout your career. Attending to the fundamentals of copyright can be important for your scholarship, regardless of your discipline or field of expertise ." (Crews, 2013). 

Copyright Checklist

The following checklist — also summarized from Kenneth Crews' article — should be referred to throughout the process of researching and writing your thesis. Though you might be tempted to put these considerations off until later, remember: any preparation or planning done early on will make things much easier as you get closer to submitting your thesis.  

• Do a thorough sweep or your thesis draft and identify all third-party materials you plan to include in your final project. Common third party materials include images, sources from the Web, and long quotations (over 1.5 pages, single-spaced) from published works. 
• Ask yourself, " Are any of these materials open access ?" If yes, they have no copyright restrictions.
• Ask, " Does my inclusion of this material count as fair use ?" 
• Ask, " Do any of these materials have Creative Commons Licenses ?" Creative Commons Licenses allow for free distribution of otherwise copyrighted works (with proper attribution).  
• For any materials that don't meet the above conditions, ask, " Do I have permission to use these ?" If not, refer to the "Requesting Permission for Copyrighted Materials" page of this guide. 
• Ask, " Am I including any materials that I've created but that have been previously published elsewhere ?" Even if you are the original author of these materials, you will need permission to include them in your thesis. 

Resources and Further Reading

We've provided relevant excerpts from these resources throughout this guide, and have also included them in their entirety below for you to review.  

• ProQuest Copyright Guide The following guide by ProQuest offers guidelines for avoiding copyright infringement and introduces the kinds of materials or sources that require copyright permissions. This document also includes a sample Permission Form and instructions to follow when requesting permission from copyright owners.
• ProQuest - Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis This article by Kenneth Crews offers a more extensive overview of copyright and its significance, before discussing the fundamentals of copyright — both protecting your own and respecting others' — as they relate to your thesis. Though not required reading, Crews' article has a wealth of useful information that will strengthen your understanding of copyright as you research and write your thesis.
• Pratt Institute Academic Integrity Policy Copyright issues directly relate to Pratt's Academic Integrity Policy, as each stress the importance of crediting and acknowledging the contributions other writers, artists, and thinkers have made to your work. "Giving credit where it's due" is a central aspect of academic integrity and an essential element of your thesis.
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• Last Updated: Apr 9, 2024 10:43 AM
• URL: https://libguides.pratt.edu/thesisguide

Thesis and Dissertation Guide

• « Thesis & Dissertation Resources
• The Graduate School Home

• Introduction
• Copyright Page
• Dedication, Acknowledgements, Preface (optional)
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables, Figures, and Illustrations
• List of Abbreviations
• List of Symbols
• Non-Traditional Formats
• Font Type and Size
• Spacing and Indentation
• Tables, Figures, and Illustrations
• Formatting Previously Published Work
• Internet Distribution
• Open Access

Registering Copyright

Using copyrighted materials.

• Use of Your Own Previously Published Materials
• Submission Steps
• Submission Checklist
• Sample Pages

IV. Copyrighting

A copyright is an intangible right granted to the author or originator of certain literary or artistic productions, under which they are invested for a limited period with the sole, exclusive privilege of making copies and publishing and selling them.

Copyright protection automatically exists from the time the work is created in fixed form. There is no requirement that the work be published or registered to obtain protection under copyright law. The copyright of any work immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work, unless it is a work-for-hire, or unless ownership has been assigned by written agreement.

Receipt of a submitted and approved thesis or dissertation in The Graduate School results in the publication of the document by the University Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. As such, each student grants the University a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce the student's work, in whole or in part, in electronic form to be posted in the University Library database and made available to the general public at no charge. This does not mean that UNC-Chapel Hill owns the copyright to your work (you do), but the University has the right to reproduce and distribute your work. Public universities often require students to allow reproduction and distribution of academic work to support the dissemination of intellectual thought and discovery. Please review the Copyright Policy of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for additional information.

Regardless of whether or not you register copyright for your thesis or dissertation, UNC-Chapel Hill requires that you include a copyright notice following the title page. See Section I of this Guide and the sample copyright page for the format of this notice. Including this page helps to establish that you are the owner of the work. It also protects you, as the copyright holder, from anyone claiming innocent infringement or unintentional violation of copyright.

You may wish to register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. As mentioned above, copyright registration is not a condition to copyright protection. There are, however, advantages to registration, especially if you have a claim of infringement of your copyright. Registration may be made at any time within the life of the copyright, but there are advantages to filing for registration within three months of publication. For more information on registration, consult the website of the U.S. Copyright Office .

There are two main ways for you to file for copyright of your thesis or dissertation:

• You may empower ProQuest to file the application on your behalf. When you submit your thesis or dissertation, ProQuest charges a fee for this service ($55, subject to change). The service includes preparing an application in your name, submitting your application fee, depositing the required copy or copies of the manuscript, and mailing you the completed certificate of registration from the Library of Congress.
• Alternately, you may file for copyright directly. Visit the following U.S. Copyright website for more information about registering your work . There is a copyright fee for filing copyright directly with the U.S. Copyright Office ($35, subject to change).

Any copyrighted materials used in your work, beyond brief excerpts, may be used only with the written permission of the copyright owner. Book and journal publishers normally hold the copyright for all materials they publish. Therefore, even if you are the sole or one of several authors of material in a published book or journal, you must obtain written permission from the copyright holder if you are including this material in your document. Remember that use of reproductions or excerpts of other media, such as music, graphic images, or computer software may also require permissions.

Your letter to the copyright holder needs to make clear that you seek written permission to preserve (on microfilm and digitally) and publish (in print and digital form) your thesis or dissertation through ProQuest and that ProQuest may sell, on demand, for scholarly purposes, single copies of your work, which includes the copyright holder's material. Your letter must also seek written permission for the document to be submitted in electronic format to UNC-Chapel Hill where it will be placed in a database and made available through the University Library to the general public at no charge via the Internet.

You are responsible for securing all necessary permissions and paying any permission fees in advance of using copyrighted materials in your work.

Use of Your Own Previously Published Material

Some academic programs permit you to include articles or other materials that you have previously published, that have been accepted (or submitted, in press, or under review) for publication, or that have been otherwise presented to the public within the body of your thesis or dissertation. In all such instances the following guidelines apply:

• If the material is co-authored, your academic program must approve its inclusion in your thesis or dissertation.
• If the material is copyrighted (if you are the sole author but the copyright is held by the publisher), you must fulfill the conditions specified in the section above on using copyrighted materials .
• The material, if included in the body of your text, must conform to all formatting guidelines outlined in this Guide. See the Formatting Previously Published Work section for details.

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• Dissertation Copyright
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• Formatting FAQs
• Sample Dissertation Title Page

Copyrighting your Dissertation

In the United States, you automatically own the copyright in your original creative authorship, such as your dissertation, once it is fixed in a tangible form ( i.e. , written down or recorded). United States law does not require you to include a copyright notice on your dissertation or to  formally register  with the U.S. Copyright Office in order to secure copyright protection over your work. However, there are some benefits to including a copyright notice and registering your work. See the  Copyright Guide  for more information or to schedule a consultation.

Including a Copyright Page in your Dissertation

Including a copyright page in your dissertation is optional but recommended. For details on how to format the copyright page, consult the  PhD Dissertation Formatting Guide  and the  PhD Dissertation Formatting Checklist .

Dissertations Based on Joint Work

• For dissertations based on joint work with other researchers, a unique and separate dissertation must be presented by each degree candidate. You must include a concise account of your unique contribution to the joint work, and remainder of the dissertation must be authored solely by you. Authorship of an entire dissertation by more than one degree candidate is not allowed.

Using Your Own Previously Published Material in Your Dissertation

University of Pennsylvania  policy  allows you to include your own previously published work or articles submitted for publication as part of the dissertation with the following conditions:

• You must obtain approval of the dissertation committee and Graduate Group Chairperson.
• You must obtain written permission from the copyright owner, which may be the journal, publisher, and/or any co-authors, unless you are the sole copyright holder (depends on your publishing agreement).
• You must upload any permission letters in ETD Administrator as an  Administrative Document  titled “Permission Letter – Do Not Publish.”
• Your dissertation must be formatted as a single document with consistent formatting and styles throughout. If you are using multiple previously published articles, make sure to make the formatting consistent with the rest of the document.

When using previously published or in press work, you must disclose this information in your dissertation in the following format :

• Under the Chapter title, list the full citation for the previously published/in-press article in the citation style used in your Bibliography.
• If it is a jointly authored article, describe your contribution to the work in a separate sentence.

Using Other Copyrighted Material in Your Dissertation

If you use third party copyrighted material (images, quotations, datasets, figures), you are responsible for re-use of that material (see the  Policy on Unauthorized Copying of Copyrighted Media ). In many cases, you may be able to use copyrighted material under the “ fair use ” provision of U.S. copyright law. Consult the  PhD Dissertation Formatting Guide  and the  PhD Dissertation Formatting Checklist  for information on how to submit written permission from a copyright holder. Typically, you will need to request a permission letter and upload the letter as an  Administrative Document  in  ETD Administrator .

If you still have questions regarding copyright and “fair use” refer to the  Penn Libraries Copyright Guide  or email  [email protected]  for further support.

Patent and Intellectual Property

Any inventions that you make as part of your research for your degree and disclosed as part of your dissertation, and any patent or other intellectual property rights arising therefrom, are governed by the policies of the University of Pennsylvania, including the  Patent and Tangible Research Property Policies and Procedures  and  Policy Relating to Copyrights and Commitment of Effort for Faculty.  For more information, please contact the  Penn Center for Innovation .

There are strict deadlines under U.S. and international law regarding the timing for filing patent applications and the public availability of your dissertation. Contact the  Penn Center for Innovation  to discuss whether there might be a patentable invention disclosed in your dissertation prior to deposit of your dissertation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do i have copyright over my dissertation .

Yes. According to US Copyright law, you have copyright immediately and automatically over any of your new, original works in a “fixed, tangible form” ( i.e. , written down, recorded, etc.). You do not need to register or to include a copyright symbol © or any other formal marks to secure your copyright, though there are some benefits to doing so. See the  Copyright Guide  for more information or email  [email protected]  for further support.

Should I register the copyright in my dissertation with the U.S. Copyright Office? 

It depends on what you want to do with your dissertation. There are  some benefits to registering the copyright  in your dissertation depending on your future goals. However, keep in mind that you automatically have copyright over your dissertation without formally registering. To learn more about formally registering the copyright in your dissertation, see the  Copyright Guide  or schedule a consultation.  

Should I pay ProQuest to register my copyright?

Note that you already have copyright over your dissertation, but if you would like to  formally register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office , you can pay ProQuest to do it for you (you will have the option in ETD Administrator). For less cost, you can register it yourself on the  copyright.gov  web page. Information on registering your copyright is available in the  Copyright Guide . Please keep in mind that if portions of your dissertation are comprised of previously published co-authored material,  you cannot  register your copyright through ProQuest. 

What is a Creative Commons license?

A copyright license grants permission for someone else to use your copyrighted work.  A  Creative Commons  license is one type of copyright license. It works hand in hand with your copyright. It is not an independent type of copyright. By using a Creative Commons license you are telling the world under what circumstances they are able to use your work without asking your permission each and every time.  You can only add a Creative Commons license to your work if you are the copyright holder, and have not transferred your rights to someone else (like a publisher).

You may choose to apply a Creative Commons license to your dissertation by adding it to the copyright notice page; see the  PhD Dissertation Formatting Guide  for an example. V isit the  Creative Commons website  to review all the licenses in full detail and select one that fits your needs. 

Refer to the  Services for Authors Guide  or  schedule a consultation  to learn more about using a Creative Commons license on your dissertation.

I want to use copyrighted materials in my dissertation. Is that okay?

It depends. If the materials you wish to incorporate into your dissertation are copyrighted, you will need to do a  fair use analysis  for each item you use to determine if you can proceed without getting permission. If you do not feel that you can make a good “fair use” case, you will need to  request permission  from the copyright holder and provide all permission letters as  Administrative Documents  in ETD Administrator. Just because you are using the work for educational purposes does not automatically mean that your work is “fair use” or that you have permission to use the work.  Request a consultation  to learn more about fair use and other copyright considerations.

I want to use my own previously published materials in my dissertation. Is that okay?

It depends. If the materials you may wish to incorporate into your dissertation are published in a journal or other publication, you may need to seek permission from the journal, publisher, or any co-authors. These permission letters must be uploaded as supplementary material in ETD Administrator before the deposit date. Please refer to your publication agreement for further information.

Additionally, using previously published materials as part of your dissertation requires approval of the dissertation committee and Graduate Group Chairperson.

I would like to know more about publishing, copyright, open access, and other/related issues. How can I find out more?

The Penn Libraries offers a range of workshops and presentations on these topics (and other digital skills related topics)  throughout the year . Groups can request a number of these workshops for classes or other group settings. For personal discussions about copyright, fair use, Creative Commons, scholarly publishing, and other related topics, please  contact your subject librarian  for support and further referrals. For more general information about these and related topics, review the  Penn Libraries’ guides  by keyword or subject.

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Copyright and your Thesis

Copyright statement.

Any reuse of copyrighted materials within your thesis or dissertation must be accompanied by written permission by the copyright holder.

Use of Previously Published Works in a Thesis or Dissertation

The Graduate School grants students permission to use their previously published works in their thesis or dissertation using an article-based thesis structure (see Thesis & Dissertation Structures and Formatting ). If you plan to include previously published works into your thesis, you should gain approval at the departmental level. Your advisor is aware of departmental thesis structure requirements.

During the submission process to an academic journal, you may have transferred the copyright of your work to the publisher. You must obtain written permission from the copyright holder if you are including your previously owned work in your thesis. You, the author, will be responsible for securing all permissions and pay any fees associated with obtaining these permissions to reuse your work. You will need to upload these permission letters as Copyright Permissions when you upload your thesis to HammerRR.

All reused publications will need to be formatted to conform to University requirements. All previously published works and works submitted for review shall warrant an acknowledgment in your thesis document. Many publishers require a specific statement which you should place three (3) single spaces below the title of the chapter.

Copyright and Fair Use

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Copyright & your thesis.

This guide includes basic information related to copyright and your thesis.

The content in this guide has been adapted (with permission) from the  Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of British Columbia .

Copyright ownership

Electronic theses are subject to the same copyright protection as paper documents. Students hold copyright to their theses regardless of the method of submission. For more information, see  What are Queen's University's policies regarding ownership of Intellectual Property?  in the Schools of Graduate Studies Intellectual Property Guidelines.

Publishing your thesis elsewhere

You own the copyright to your thesis as a whole and are free to publish your thesis if you wish. If your thesis includes copyrighted works like figures, tables, etc. the publisher may request that you get permission to publish.

You should be aware that many former students in North America are contacted by publishing companies which search the Internet for theses. The companies then contact writers expressing specific interest in his or her thesis, and offer to publish it. You are free to do this if you wish, but you should research the company first to ensure that it is a reputable academic publisher. There are usually discussions between former students online which can give you an insight into the value of publishing with a particular company.

Use of copyrighted material

According to Library and Archives Canada, “students should ensure that the use of copyrighted materials from other sources in their theses meet the requirements of the Copyright Act. Some written permission may be required” ( Thesis Canada ).

When you submit the final copy of your thesis, you must sign the Queen’s Thesis Licence Agreement confirming that if you have copyrighted material in your thesis, it either complies with the "fair dealing" provisions of the Copyright Act, or you have obtained permission to use it.

Please retain the original permission forms or letters for your records in case of a challenge.

So, what are those “requirements” that you may have to worry about for your thesis?

Copyright is an area of intellectual property law that protects forms of creative expression. It gives creators and owners of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the exclusive right to “reproduce the work … in any material form whatever” ( Copyright Act,  s. 3). Creators and owners also get the right to distribute, translate, and adapt their work and to authorize any of the rights listed previously.

Copyright protection applies regardless of whether the work in question is published (such as a book or an annual report) or not (such as an internal company memo), and whether someone has made it available to the public (such as on a website) or not. This protection expires 70 years after the death of the originator, regardless of who holds copyright at that time.

This means that, if your thesis includes someone else’s work (e.g. figures, graphs, photos, images, art work etc.), you will have to abide by the requirements of the Copyright Act in order to use these works.

When is permission not required?

Copyright does not cover everything. The copyright act lists a number of limitations and exceptions to copyright that may apply to the works you are using in your thesis or project.  

The Copyright Compliance and Administration Policy outlines a number of situations where it is lawful to copy copyrighted works without permission or payment.

• Material in which Copyright does not Subsist  – Copyright does not protect facts and ideas.
• Material in the Public Domain  - Works in which the term of copyright has expired can be copied without permission or payment.  This means the works of creators who have been dead for more than 70 years, no matter where they resided or published their work.
• Insubstantial Portions  – Copying an insubstantial amount of a work is not a violation of the Copyright Act and does not trigger the requirement of permission or payment.  What will constitute a substantial part of a work is assessed from a quantitative and qualitative point of view. Regardless of the quantity of the work copied, if that part is distinctive, valuable or an essential part of the work, the copying will infringe the owner’s copyright. Examples of insubstantial use include selected sentences, paragraphs, verses or choruses from an article, book, poem or song .
• Works with Implicit or Explicit Consent to Copy  – Material specifically presented for public use – including Open Access publications, works placed in Institutional Repositories and works covered by Creative Commons Licenses – may typically be copied with minimal restrictions.  When copying material posted on the Internet, a user should check what use rights the copyright owner permits.

The fair dealing exception

Exceptions are situations where copyrighted works can be reproduced without getting permission or providing compensation to a copyright holder. The most relevant exception for writing your thesis is called  Fair Dealing  ( s. 29 ), which would allow you to copy works for use in your thesis as long as the copying is  fair  and is  for the purpose of research, private study, education, parody, satire, criticism, review or news reporting.  For the last three categories, you must mention the source of the image and the name of the author, performer, maker or broadcaster.

Note:  It is good academic practice to cite sources, but such citing does not remove the obligation to obtain formal permission to use copyrighted material that is not covered under "fair dealing".

While copyright law in Canada does not include specific criteria for determining  fairness ,  the  CCH v. Law Society of Upper Canada   Supreme Court decision set out a number of criteria that represent the most authoritative test available in Canada. 

These criteria are:

• The Purpose of the Dealing
• The Character of the Dealing
• The Amount of the Dealing
• Alternatives to the Dealing
• The Nature of the Work
• The Effect of the Dealing on the Work

To learn more about fair dealing and to do a fair dealing evaluation, try our  f air dealing evaluator (BETA) . Using this tool, you can learn how to apply these six criteria to determine “fairness” when dealing with copyrighted materials.  You can also generate a time-stamped PDF for your records.

What if fair dealing does not apply in my situation?

Permission is required when the material you are using in your thesis:

• constitutes a substantial portion of a copyrighted work, and;
• would not fall within fair dealing.

Permission is always necessary if you are including full articles that have been published elsewhere (i.e. a manuscript style thesis). Please use the  Permission of Co-Authors  from to get permission and signatures from your co-authors and publishers. 

Getting permission

If you are not certain that your use of copyrighted material is covered under fair dealing, Ask Us . We can help you do a fair dealing analysis and/or help obtain written permission from copyright holders in order to use their work in your thesis. In most cases, this is willingly given; however, obtaining letters or completed forms may take a long time. Send out your requests for permission as early as possible.

Permission from co-authors is always necessary if you are including full articles that have been published elsewhere (i.e. a manuscript style thesis). Please use the Permission of Co-Authors from to get permission and signatures from your co-authors. In most cases, publishers will allow for journal articles and book chapters to be included in manuscript style theses without additional permissions. Check your publication agreements, the author rights section of the publisher site or the  SHERPA RoMEO  website for more information about what your publisher allows.

Note: Your thesis must be as complete as possible. Removal of material is only acceptable if you are not able to obtain permission after you have made reasonable attempts to do so, or if a fee will be charged for use of the material.

Best protection against accusations of copyright violation

For your best protection against accusations of copyright violation, you should request either:

• an original signed letter on the copyright holder's letterhead.

For manuscript style theses, use the Permission of Co-Authors form to get permission and signatures from your co-authors and publishers. 

Permission from a website

Many journal websites include statements of permission for author's material to be used in a thesis. In such cases, you should make a copy of the agreement or print out the web page and keep the printout for your records.

Keeping proof of permission

You should keep copies of all letters and forms granting you permission to use copyrighted material. Please do not include permissions in your thesis.

How to Obtain Permission

From journals.

Check the journal's website, if there is one. It may provide one or more of the following:

• Advance permission for specific uses.
• Advance permission to journal authors who have signed over copyright
• Information on how to request permission
• Information on uses that are specifically prohibited

SHERPA and Eprints both maintain online databases where you can look up journals and find their policies on use of your published papers in a thesis.

If permission to use copyrighted material in a thesis is given on a website, print out the web page that states this and keep it with your records.

Contact the Copyright Holder

Include the following information in your request.

Introduce yourself clearly

Tell the copyright holder that you are a graduate student preparing a thesis or dissertation for submission as part of the requirements for your degree at Queen's.

Identify the work you are seeking permission to use

Give standard reference information for the work, including figure/table number, if any, and page numbers. You can briefly describe the context in which you propose to use the work in your thesis.

Tell the copyright holder:

• that your thesis will be available in the Queen's Library's electronic collection and will be available online to the public, and
• that you will be granting non-exclusive licences listed on  Queen's Thesis Deposit License  page. Send the copyright holder copies of these licence agreements.

Ask for specific action

• Request a reply by a given date.
• Offer to send the copyright holder a copy of your completed work.
• Keep copies of request letters and all correspondence.
• Keep emails.

If you are requesting permission, the process can take some time, so we recommend starting early.  If you do plan on publishing your work in more than one place (eg. in a journal   and in QSpace), permission will likely be required for all works that you use.

The following tips and tools can help you get permission:

• Rightslink  is a tool that easily allows you to request permission for re-publication. In cases where they cannot give permission, they also often list the contact information for the rightsholder.
• Many publisher websites will include information about how to request permission (e.g., Oxford Journals ).  You can also look up individual publisher policies on the SHERPA RoMEO website.
• Proquest and Kenneth Crews have put together a guide that includes  a sample permissions letter  that you can use and modify for requesting permission. 

If permission is denied and you do not have a strong argument for fair dealing, we recommend removing the work and replacing it with a description, a full citation, the location of the source, and an explanation that the source has been removed due to copyright restrictions.

Citing sources

You must include full citations for any copyrighted material you have in your thesis regardless of source, including photos, pictures, charts, graphs and tables.

Each citation must include the copyright symbol, name of the copyright holder (who may or may not be the author), and, if applicable, a statement that the use of the material or adaptation (in the case of adapted graphics) is by permission of the copyright holder.

Journal of XYZ, 2009, by permission. Journal of XYZ, 2009, adapted by permission. (For adapted graphics.) Sometimes copyright holders will ask you to use a specific wording in your citation. If so, it's important to follow their instructions exactly, word for word.

Unable to get permission?

When your use of copyrighted material is not covered under "fair dealing" and you are unable to obtain permission or there is a charge for obtaining permission that you are unwilling to pay, you can remove the copyrighted material and leave a blank space.

Note: Your thesis must be as complete as possible. Removal of material is only acceptable if you are denied permission, if a fee will be charged for use of the material, or if you receive no response from the copyright holder after making a reasonable effort at contact.

This space must contain the following:

• A statement that the material has been removed because of copyright restrictions
• A description of the material and the information it contained
• A full citation of the original source of the material

Example: Figure 3 has been removed due to copyright restrictions. It was a diagram of the apparatus used in performing the experiment, showing the changes made by the investigating team. Original source: Wu, G. and Thompson, J.R. (2008) Effect of Ketone Bodies on Dairy Cattle. Biochem J. 255:139-144.

The brief description of the figure removed is important as it gives the reader a chance to follow the thesis argument without needing to look up the actual figures. If possible, including a link to an online source is very useful.

For help locating resources, using the library, or to request a research consultation, try our Ask Us service.

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• KU Libraries
• Subject & Course Guides
• Copyright Resources
• Copyright for Dissertations and Theses

Copyright Resources: Copyright for Dissertations and Theses

• Getting Started
• Using Copyrighted Works in Scholarship
• Copyright and Teaching
• Copyright Considerations for Authors
• Public Performance Rights for Screening Media

Copyright Considerations for Theses and Dissertations

Copyright affects the author of a thesis or dissertation in two ways:  1) As a user of copyrighted material within the thesis or dissertation and 2) As the copyright owner of the thesis or dissertation. 

In addition to the general resources for all authors on the Getting Started , Using Copyrighted Works in Scholarship and Copyright Considerations for Authors tabs on this guide, this page includes information and resources that address common copyright concerns of authors of theses and dissertations. 

KU Libraries’ Shulenburger Office of Scholarly Communication & Copyright is happy to assist KU faculty, staff, and students with questions concerning copyright and fair use of copyrighted materials, in consultation with the KU Office of the General Counsel as needed. Contact us at [email protected] for assistance.

There are guides for graduate scholars from other institutions that you might find helpful, though they will not have a KU perspective:

• Theses and Copyright (MIT)
• Copyright on Campus:  Copyright Concerns of Graduate Researchers (University of Florida)
• Copyright and Fair Use: Copyright Concerns of Students (ATLA)

Using Previously-Published Materials as Chapters

In some disciplines, it's common to include entire articles that were published previously solely by the author or sometimes with co-authors as chapters in the thesis or dissertation.  In the case of co-authored material, each co-author has full copyrights to the entire work, unless there are contractual reasons why this is not the case, such as when an author is an employee of a project that claims copyright in any publications resulting from the research funded by the project.  The issue is that most article publication agreements transfer the author's copyrights to the publisher.  This gives the publisher control over how the work is used and distributed.  This means that authors may not have the rights to include their previously-published work as chapters in their thesis or dissertation without asking permission from the publisher first.

There's a handy list of publishers and their default policies at the bottom of the University of Florida's Copyright Concerns of Graduate Researchers resource. 

KUMC Graduate Students :  Graduate Studies at KUMC has posted instructions about how to cite previously published work and how to submit copyright permissions.   See page 18 of the KUMC Formatting Guidelines for more information.

How do you know if you can include your previously-published work?

Does the article have a creative commons license.

• Authors can include the work as long as they use the work in accordance with the Creative Commons license.

Don't have the publication contract or aren't sure what the contract terms mean?  Try this first: 

• Find the article on the journal web site and click on the Permissions link.
• On the resulting screen, the requestor will usually be asked if they are the author of the article and how they intend to use it. 
• Select "Reuse in a thesis/dissertation"  and complete the rest of the information requested.
• Read the resulting screens carefully to see if the article can be used in the thesis or dissertation. 
• If not, see Asking for Permission , below, for some tips.

Did the publication contract include language that allows the author to use the work after it's published in a new work or specifically in a thesis or dissertation? 

• This is often the case in disciplines where articles are included in theses/dissertations, but not always.  If the contract allows, the author can include the work as long as it is used in accordance with the terms of the publication contract.

Publication agreement doesn't allow the author to use their article in a new publication?  

The author will need to ask the publisher for permission to reuse the article.  See Asking for Permission , below, for some tips.

Asking for Permission

Getting permission takes time; do this as soon as you know you want to use the article.

• Find the Contact information for the journal.  This is often found on the journal website in an About... , Contact or Permissions menu.
• Your name and when you are planning on graduating.
• Indicate that you are the author of the article and that you want to include it in your thesis or dissertation.
• Ask what you need to do to obtain permission.
• Send an email with the subject "Permissions Needed" and include the information above in the email message. 
• If you are very close to graduation, contact the publisher's Permissions department by phone rather than email. 

Author as Copyright Owner

One of the graduation requirements at KU is the completion of the Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) Release Form .  In the Copyright section of that form, you will certify that your work does not, to the best of your knowledge, infringe upon copyrights owned by someone else, through, but not limited to plagiarism, unapproved reproduction of materials or improper citation.

Generally, an author has the copyrights to their thesis or dissertation from the moment that it is fixed in a tangible format, such as a Microsoft Word file, or a printed copy. 

• According to the KU Intellectual Property Policy , the University of Kansas does not claim copyright in theses or dissertations produced by KU students, except for those special circumstances defined in the policy.
• Authors don’t have to include a copyright statement--e.g. Copyright 2019 Jane Smythe-- in the work, though it’s sometimes helpful because it makes it clear who has the copyrights to the work. 
• As the copyright owner of your thesis or dissertation, you need to decide whether you are going to register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office.  See the section below:  Registering Your Copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office

Registering Your Copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office

How to register.

As part of the ProQuest submission process, authors can choose to register their copyright with the U.S.Copyright Office. We generally suggest that people register their copyrights if they can afford to do so.  

• The cost is $75 if ProQuest registers the copyright for the student.  Many students choose this because of the convenience.
• The cost is $ 45 if the author registers themselves by going to the U.S. Copyright Office website and registers the copyright using the Standard form.

Why register?

According to the U.S. Copyright Office publication Copyright Circular #1 , pg. 7, there are several reasons why authors should register their copyright:

• Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
• Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of U.S. origin.
• If made before or within five years of publication, registration will establish prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate.
• Registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the U.S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies. For additional information, go to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website at https://www.cbp.gov/.

Embargoes of Theses and Dissertations

One of the decisions that the author of a thesis or dissertation must make as they prepare to graduate is whether to delay the release of the thesis or dissertation for a period of time after graduation.  This decision is often a balance between the need to make the work as visible as possible , and the desire to protect the work because the author wants to publish that research in journal articles or books, because of pending patents, or because the research is sensitive.

If an embargo is needed, KU's Embargo Policy for Theses and Dissertations spells out the circumstances under which an embargo may be requested and the process for doing so.

• First, the student must submit the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Release Form to the school/College office. Embargo requests need to be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies in the author's department, the Department Chair, or the Committee Chair.  If an embargo is approved, this form will ensure that the thesis or dissertation file is protected from public view.  Keep in mind that the title, abstract, and keywords entered during the ProQuest submission will be visible, even if the file is protected.
• Second, during the online submission process to ProQuest/UMI , in the Publishing Options section, the student must select I want my work to be available in ProQuest as soon as it is published > No, I have patents pending, or another reason why I need to delay access to the full text of my work , then select the embargo term.  If an embargo has been approved, this step will ensure that public view of the work is temporarily restricted in the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database.

Embargoes may be renewed before the expiration date by filling out the Embargo Renewal form for the KU ScholarWorks copy AND , for the ProQuest copy, by contacting ProQuest at [email protected] or by phone at 1-800-521-0600 at least one month before the embargo expires .

• << Previous: Public Performance Rights for Screening Media
• Last Updated: Oct 10, 2023 3:38 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.ku.edu/copyright

Penn State University Libraries

Copyright and your thesis or dissertation.

• Using Others' Work
• Reusing Your Published Work
• Your Copyright
• Publishing Your Thesis or Dissertation
• Frequently Asked Questions and Resources

The information on this site and from the Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright at PSU Libraries is not legal advice and is provided for informational purposes only. The Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright is not counsel to any members of the PSU community.

Welcome to the Copyright and Your Thesis or Dissertation guide from Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright at the Penn State Libraries. This guide addresses copyright questions specific to Penn State thesis and dissertation authors. It covers the following topics:

• Using Others' Work
• FAQ and Resources

Your committee, advisors, and other mentors in your field can help you understand your field’s publishing norms, such as how to select and assess third party material and how to attribute that material properly.

Services from the Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright

The Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright at the Penn State Libraries supports faculty, staff, and students in making informed and ethical decisions about copyright and the use of copyrighted materials in support of education and scholarly communications. The University Libraries supports teaching, learning, and research at Penn State as an active participant in the open access ecosystem, raising discoverability and visibility of Penn State scholarship and resources.

We are available to answer your questions. Submit a request to the Office of Scholarly Communications & Copyright .

• Consultations
• Customized Presentations
• Resources & Information
• Copyright Education and Training
• Scholarly and Open Access Publishing
• Affordable Course Content and Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Attribution

This guide is based in part on Copyright for Dissertations , a guide from the University of Michigan Library Copyright Office, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license .

• Next: Using Others' Work >>
• Last Updated: Aug 18, 2023 9:36 AM
• URL: https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/copyright-td

University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Copyright for Graduate Students: Theses and Dissertations

• Public Domain
• Creative Commons Licensing
• Obtaining Copyright Permission
• International Materials
• State and Federal Governmental Materials
• University Policies on Copyright
• Depositing Your Dissertation/Thesis in IDEALS

Copyright Questions?

Copyright law can be difficult and confusing. This webpage is meant to provide you with guidance, but not legal advice.

Should you have further questions, please do not hesitate to ask Sara Benson, the Copyright Librarian, for assistance. Sara can be reached at 217-333-4200 or [email protected]

Scholarly Communication and Publishing

The Fine Print

Copyright law is complicated. This guide is intended to provide you with some guidance on how to refer library users to accurate information. However, this guide is not intended to provide legal advice to you or library users nor should you attempt to provide legal advice to library users.

And, of course, when in doubt, please refer library users to the Copyright Librarian, Sara Benson, at  srbenson @illinois.edu

Dual Copyright Aspects of Theses & Dissertations

When writing a thesis or a dissertation, you have two sets of copyrights you should bear in mind.

• Your own copyright as author of the thesis or dissertation; and
• The copyright owned by others in the material you incorporate into your thesis or dissertation.

This guide will discuss both issues.

Generally, when using others' work, you will either determine that you do not need to obtain written permission to use the work in your thesis or dissertation (either because the work is no longer copyright protected/in the public domain or because you have determined that your use constitutes a fair use) or that you do need to obtain permission from the copyright owner (often the publisher and not the author of the work) to use the work.

You may need to consider copyright agreements concerning your own previously published work as well, as you may have transferred copyright to a journal or publisher. In that instance, you may need to obtain permission to use your own work in your thesis or dissertation.

Finally, you should consider how you want to designate your work here at Illinois. Do you want to make the work as open as possible and deposit it both with the institutional repository (IDEALS) and Proques t? Do you want to embargo your work as you plan to publish it immediately? Do you want to make it available so as to find a publisher? These are decisions you will need to make when you deposit your work with the University and this guide can help you when making those decisions.

• Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis [pdf] Kenneth D. Crews offers a complete guide on how copyright affects your thesis.

Using Your Own Previously Published Work

For your own previously published works, first read the fine print in the publishing agreement. Do you have the right to re-use your own work or did you transfer your copyright to the publisher? If you transferred your copyright, you may need to ask for permission to use your own previously published work! Sound crazy? Well, that's why many publishing agreements today expressly permit scholars to use their own work (even if published) for research and teaching. But, again, read the fine print. 

And, if you are planning to publish parts of your dissertation before you file your paper with the Graduate College, but you have not signed a copyright agreement or publishing agreement just yet, be sure to keep copyright in mind when negotiating with the publisher! Consider asking the publisher to let you add the SPARC Author's Addendum to your agreement. 

What if you no longer have a copy of your publishing agreement? Don't worry, your publisher most certainly has a copy. Just send them a friendly e-mail and ask them if they will send you a copy.  

• SPARC Author Addendum The SPARC Author Addendum is a legal instrument that you can use to modify your copyright transfer agreements with non-open access journal publishers. It allows you to select which individual rights out of the bundle of copyrights you want to keep, such as distributing copies in the course of teaching and research, posting the article on a personal or institutional Web site, or creating derivative works.

Fair Use or Seeking Permission: That is the Question

When using other scholars' work in your dissertation (or even your own work, for that matter) the question arises: do I need to ask for permission to use the work in my writing?

There are generally no truly simple answers to that question, except maybe for quotations. You may generally quote a small portion of another scholar's published work without seeking their permission to do so--this is a classic example of fair use.

When using the work of others, consider the following:

• Is it in the public domain ? If so, no permission is needed to use the work.
• Is it a work produced by the federal government in the course of their duties as government officials ? If so, no permission is needed.
• Is the work licensed with a creative commons license ? If so, no permission is needed to use the work, but you will need to carefully consider the terms of the license and comply with those terms to legally use the work.
• Is your use of the work a fair use ? If so, no permission is needed to use the work, but you should conduct a fair use analysis for each and every source you consider to be a fair use.
• If you've answered no to all of the above questions, then yes, you should seek written permission to use the work in your thesis or dissertation.

Except where otherwise indicated, original content in this guide is licensed under a   Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license . You are free to share, adopt, or adapt the materials. We encourage broad adoption of these materials for teaching and other professional development purposes, and invite you to customize them for your own needs.

• Next: Copyright Basics >>
• Last Updated: May 8, 2024 3:09 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.illinois.edu/copyrightforgradstudents

• University of Michigan Library
• Research Guides

Copyright for Dissertations

• Copyright in Your Dissertation
• Using Others' Content
• Publishing Your Dissertation

Copyright Questions?

The University of Michigan Library Copyright Office provides help with copyright questions for University of Michigan faculty, staff and students. Please email us with questions or visit our website for more information.

Legal Advice

The information presented here is intended for informational purposes and should not be construed as legal advice. If you have specific legal questions pertaining to the University of Michigan, please contact the Office of the General Counsel .

If you require legal advice in your personal capacity, the lawyer referral services operated by the Washtenaw County Bar Association and the State Bar of Michigan may be helpful to you.

Copyright Formalities

In the United States today, copyright protection automatically covers all new copyrightable works, including your dissertation. The moment a copyrightable work is fixed in a tangible medium of expression (e.g., written on a piece of paper or on your hard drive), it is subject to copyright.

In the past, authors had to comply with certain formalities in order to obtain copyright protection. These formalities included registering the work with the US Copyright Office and placing a copyright notice on the work. Copyright law no longer requires that authors comply with these formalities merely to obtain copyright protection. However, registering a work and putting a copyright notice on a work still come with legal benefits, so authors often do these things anyway.

Copyright Notice

Under current US law, you do not have to provide a copyright notice on your work to receive copyright protection. However, if you are making your work publicly available, you may want to.

Putting a copyright notice (the copyright symbol (©), the year of publication, and the name of the copyright holder) on a work tells the rest of the world that the work is protected by copyright. If the copyright holder later sues someone for infringing her copyright in the work, she can point to the notice to show that the defendant is not an “innocent infringer," which can lead to higher damages. A copyright notice also lets others know whom to contact if they would like a license to use the work.

• Copyright Basics: US Copyright Office Circular 1 This PDF publication from the US Copyright Office explains the basics of copyright law, including copyright notice.

Copyright Registration

Under current US law, you do not have to register your work to receive copyright protection. You may want to register it anyway, because copyright registration comes with certain legal benefits. If the work is registered within three months of its publication date or before a particular infringement occurs, the copyright holder can recover statutory damages (monetary awards that need not be connected to actual harm suffered by the copyright holder) and attorney’s fees if she is successful in an infringement suit. Also, registration is required before the author can bring a lawsuit about the use of her work. However, despite these benefits, many works are never registered because registration takes time and money.

Registering a copyright is not difficult. For instructions and forms, visit the US Copyright Office website . If you have any questions regarding copyright registration, the US Copyright Office has a toll-free help line at 1-877-476-0778. You may register a work at any time while it is still in copyright.

Registration costs can vary depending on the type of work and whether or not you are the sole author. The U.S. Copyright Office's Circular 4  has the most up to date information about registration fees.

Registration by ProQuest

If you submit your dissertation to  ProQuest , they will register the copyright on your behalf, for a fee. The Rackham Graduate School encourages Ph.D. candidates to discuss this option with their advisors before selecting it.

Who Holds Copyright

Under US law, the initial copyright holder is the author of the work. In most cases, copyright law treats the creator(s) of the work as the author(s). Copyright is automatic; it applies to the work as soon as it is fixed (or recorded) in some way.

If multiple people created the work, only those who have contributed copyrightable elements are considered authors for the purpose of copyright law. Coming up with the idea for the work alone is not enough to be an author. See  Joint Works for more if you’d like to learn more about how having multiple authors affects how we think about copyright of the work.

If someone creates a work as an employee (or in certain cases, as a contractor), that person’s employer is considered the author of the work. See  Works Made for Hire  for more information on when a work is considered a work made for hire.

Who Holds Copyright in University of Michigan Dissertations

A University of Michigan dissertation author is the initial copyright holder for her dissertation. As the copyright holder, she has certain rights under copyright law. In the United States today, those rights can be separated and split. The author can give others permission to exercise some or all of those rights. That is called a license. If the author agrees only to give that permission to one entity at a time, the license is exclusive.

An exclusive license that lasts until the end of the copyright term is a transfer of copyright. To be valid, a copyright transfer must be in writing and must be signed by the copyright holder or the copyright holder’s agent. The recipient of a copyright transfer can then license or transfer the copyright.

In the academic context, licenses and transfers of copyright are particularly common in publishing agreements. In many cases, the author transfers all or part of the copyright in her publication to the publisher. Academic authors also use the Creative Commons licenses to increase access to their work, either in advance or as part of a publishing agreement.

Rights of Copyright Holders and Users

The author is granted rights in the work , including the right to reproduce the work, to make derivative works, and to distribute the work to the public. The author can transfer those rights to someone else and can give others permission to exercise them by means of a license . Users can also use the work without permission if their use falls within one of the user’s rights .

• Copyright Basics for Undergraduate Students
• Copyright Basics for Graduate Students
• Copyright Quick Quide
• Information for Authors
• Copyright In the Classroom
• Copyright Review for Graduate Students

Copyright and Your Thesis or Dissertation

Using copyrighted materials, using your own previously published material, registering copyright.

• Keeping Control of Your Copyright
• Seeking Permission
• About the Public Domain
• About Fair Use
• Additional Resources
• Need Additional Assistance
• About this Guide

A copyright is an intangible right granted to you as the author of your thesis or dissertation. You have the sole and exclusive privilege of making copies, publishing or selling your thesis or dissertation. Currently, this protection lasts for your lifetime plus an addition 70 years. These exclusive privileges belong to you unless you have transferred them to someone else via a written agreement or your work is a “work-for-hire.”

Copyright protection automatically exists from the time you place your thesis or dissertation in fixed form. A fixed form can be a digital file such as a word processing document, PDF file, or a printed page. There is no requirement to publish or register your thesis or dissertation to obtain protection under copyright law. The copyright of any work immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work, unless as stated above it is a work-for-hire, or unless ownership has been assigned by written agreement.

Submission of your approved thesis or dissertation results in the publication of the document by Curtis Laws Wilson Library. As such, you grant the University a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce your thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, in electronic form to be posted in Scholars' Mine, our institutional repository, and made available to the general public at no charge. This does not mean that the University owns the copyright to your work (you do), but the University has the right to reproduce and distribute your work. The University requires this to support the dissemination of intellectual thought and discovery.

Regardless of whether or not you register copyright for your thesis or dissertation, you should include a copyright notice in your thesis or dissertation. Including the notice helps to establish that you are the owner of the work. It also protects you, as the copyright holder, from anyone claiming innocent infringement or unintentional violation of copyright.

Any materials belonging to someone else used in your thesis or dissertation, beyond brief excerpts, may be used only with the written permission of the copyright owner. Publishers of books and journals hold the copyright for all materials they publish. Therefore, even if you are the sole or one of several authors of material in a published book or journal, you must obtain written permission from the copyright holder if you are including this material in your document. Also the use of reproductions or excerpts of other media, such as music, graphic images, or computer software will also require permissions.

Your letter to the copyright holder needs to make clear that you seek written permission to preserve (on microfilm and digitally) and publish (in print and digital form) your thesis or dissertation through ProQuest and that ProQuest may sell, on demand, for scholarly purposes, single copies of your work, which includes the copyright holder's material. Your letter must also seek written permission for the document to be submitted in electronic format to Curtis Laws Wilson Library where it will be placed in our institutional repository, Scholars' Mine, and made available at no charge to the general public  via the Internet.

You are responsible for securing all necessary permissions and paying any permission fees in advance of using copyrighted materials in your work. It is recommended that copies of the written permission you receive be placed in the appendix of your thesis or dissertation.

Some academic programs here at Missouri S&T permit you to include articles or other materials that you have previously published, that have been accepted (or submitted, in press, or under review) for publication, or that have been otherwise presented to the public within the body of your thesis or dissertation. This is referred to as the "Publication Option." In all such instances the following guidelines apply:

• If the material is co-authored, your thesis or dissertation advisor must approve its inclusion in your thesis or dissertation.

If the material is copyrighted (if you are the sole author but the copyright is held by the publisher), you must fulfill the conditions specified above on using copyrighted materials. If you are unsure of the copyright status you should review the copyright transfer agreement you signed with the publisher and  consult with the Scholarly Communications Librarian.   The material, if included in the body of your text, must conform to all formatting guidelines.

You can register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. As mentioned above, copyright registration is not a condition for copyright protection. However, there are advantages to registration if you have a claim of infringement of your copyright. You can register at any time within the life of the copyright, but there are advantages to filing for registration within three months of publication. For more information on registration, consult the website of the U.S. Copyright Office or contact the Scholarly Communications Librarian.

There are two main ways for you to register your copyright:

• You may request ProQuest to file the application for you when you submit your thesis or dissertation. ProQuest charges a fee for this service. The service includes preparing an application in your name, submitting your application fee, depositing the required copy or copies of the manuscript, and mailing you the completed certificate of registration from the Library of Congress.  
• Alternately, you can register your copyright directly at the U.S. Copyright website. There is also a copyright fee for filing copyright directly with the U.S. Copyright Office.
• << Previous: Copyright In the Classroom
• Next: Keeping Control of Your Copyright >>
• Last Updated: Sep 1, 2023 2:45 PM
• URL: https://libguides.mst.edu/copyright

• UNSW Library
• Library guides

Copyright at UNSW

• Copyright and your thesis
• Moral rights
• Copyright protected materials
• Copyright duration
• Rights of copyright owners
• Using copyright materials
• Copyright ownership
• Fair dealing
• Disability access
• Open access
• Events and public performances
• Plagiarism and contract cheating
• Copyright infringements
• Quoting materials in your research
• Publishing your research
• UNSWorks institutional repository
• Copyright and conferences
• Text works for teaching
• Artworks and images for teaching
• TV and radio broadcasts for teaching
• Film and video for teaching
• Music and sound recordings for teaching
• Recording lectures, guest lectures and PowerPoints
• Managing copyright in your thesis
• Requesting permission
• Incorporating publications into your thesis
• Depositing your thesis in UNSWorks

UNSW students generally own copyright in their own works, including UNSW postgraduate students’ research theses.  There are exceptions to these rules, and they can be found in the UNSW intellectual property policy

When researching and writing your thesis, you may include third party copyright material such as quotes, tables, photographs, illustrations or diagrams. When using third party copyright material, you must ensure that you comply with copyright law. Under the fair dealing provision for research or study , within the Copyright Act, a reasonable portion of third party copyright material can be used in the version of your thesis submitted for examination. 

If third party copyright materials are reproduced in the public version of your thesis, you generally need permission from the copyright owner.  This permission is in addition to the normal academic practice of citing resources. 

UNSW requires a digital copy of theses to be deposited into the University's open access repository, UNSWorks. As part of the depositing process, you must declare that you obtained permission from any third party copyright materials within your thesis. More information about thesis submission can be found at Graduate Research . 

For this reason, it is important for students to carefully consider what third party copyright material they include in their thesis and allow time to obtain permission from copyright owners, if required.

For more information about thesis examination processes for all higher degree research programs at UNSW, see Thesis examination procedure .

Generally, substantial third party copyright material may be included without copyright owner's permission if:

• Copyright has expired
• A fair dealing exception covers the use 
• An insubstantial portion is used
• The material has a licence to allow for re-use

When researching and writing a thesis, it is likely that third party copyright material is used. 

Generally, research students can rely on the fair dealing for research or study when using copyright materials in the version of their thesis they turn in for examination as part of their degree program.  

Deciding whether a use is ‘fair’ is determined largely by how much of the work has been copied. 

A reasonable portion is generally considered to be:

• 10% or one chapter if the work is a published edition of 10 pages or more
• 10% of the words if the work is electronic
• one article in a single edition of a periodical publication (a journal or newspaper)
• more than one article in a single edition of a periodical publication if the same subject matter

Artistic works, unpublished material, films, and sound recordings do not have the same 10% provision. To be able to use these types of materials, you need to consider whether the use is fair and reasonable.    It is generally considered ‘reasonable’ under the fair dealing for research or study to reproduce a whole of an ‘artistic works’ (including maps, diagrams, graphs, etc.) that accompany and illustrate/explain a text for research or study purposes. If including a substantial amount of material that has been sourced from e-books or e-journals provided by the Library, best practice is to check the licence terms of these resources and request permission to include these resources in both your thesis for examination as well as the public version of your thesis. 

Copyright in the public version of your thesis

While the fair dealing for research or study allows for the use of copyright materials in the version submitted for examination, the research or study exception does not cover the use of copyright materials in the public version submitted to UNSWorks (UNSW’s institutional repository). If copyright materials are reproduced and communicated in the public version of their thesis, permission is generally required, unless an exception or licence applies. 

When can copyright material be used without seeking permission?

There are some circumstances where other people’s material can be used without permission. These include:

• when the copyright has expired or the copyright owner has waived their rights (Public Domain) 
• when a fair dealing exception covers the use 
• the amount used is insubstantial (i.e. brief quote / extract from a publication). See,  Quoting materials  
• materials with a Creative Commons licence attached
• materials copied from a website where the terms and conditions allow re-use for your intended purposes
• library subscribed resources where the publisher allows for the copyright material to be included in the public version of your thesis 

When using other people’s copyright material, remember to attribute the work and abide by any terms attached to licences.

What copyright materials requires permission for reuse?

Permission is generally required if a substantial portion of the third party material has been used.  Whether a portion is considered substantial or not is judged on both a qualitative and quantitative basis.

Examples of the type of materials that require permission for the public version of your thesis are as follows:

If the use of copyright material does not fall in one of the categories mentioned above, then student would either need to seek permission or redact the copyright material from the public facing version of their thesis that is deposited into UNSWorks. Find out more about requesting permission here .  

When writing your thesis, it is important to start the process of obtaining permission as soon as possible as it can take some time to gain the necessary permissions.  There are a number of ways to approach seeking permission:

• Use Rightslink for permissions for the use  images in books/journals; journal articles and book chapters Many commercial publishers direct permission requests to the Copyright Clearance Centre – RightsLink service.  It important that when requesting permission that the intended use is to post the thesis in an open institutional repository.
• If you are unable to gain permission via RightsLink then you need to locate the copyright owner/s. A guide to locating the copyright owner can be found on the Australia Copyright Council Information Sheet: Permission How to Get It
• If the copyright owner is a publisher, then they normally would have a ‘request copyright permission’ type link on their website. 

To request permission from a copyright owner you should: 

• check to see if the publisher has an online permission form on their website 
• if the publisher does not have a form, this Copyright permission request template  can be used as a guide to request permission
• include a detailed description of material to be used and the amount of the material you wish to use 
• state clearly that you are seeking permission to use the work for non-commercial purposes and that a copy of your thesis will be made publicly available online in UNSWorks (UNSW’s institutional repository).
• be conscious that the copyright owner has the right to say no 
• be aware that a copyright owner may charge a fee or ask you to sign a licence agreement 

Remember to allow plenty of time, as it may take months for the permission to be granted.  

It also important to retain copies of permissions you have received. Copyright permission granted by publishers and copyright owners can be included in the master copy of your thesis that is submitted to the Library, however they should be removed from the public version. Refer to Depositing Your Thesis for more information. 

Removing third party copyright material from the public version of your thesis

If it is not possible to obtain permission for the reuse of certain copyright material in the public facing version of a thesis, then those material should be removed. In the place of the redacted materials, you may include a short statement such as:

• “Figure (Text/Chart/Diagram etc.) has been removed due to copyright restrictions”. 
• “Content can be access via [insert name of publication, URL etc.]”  

If you plan to incorporate your own research publications into your research, it may be possible if the research and its publication occurred during the candidature of your degree. You will need the necessary permission from the publishers and any co-authors, and if you are using a publication/s in lieu of a chapter/s in your thesis, approval from your primary supervisor and School Postgraduate Research Coordinator is also required. Some faculties may also have discipline-specific guidelines that should be consulted. 

For more information about incorporating publications into your thesis, see Thesis Examination Procedure  and the UNSW Thesis Format Guide .

Publisher agreements often assign the publisher all rights to the work, although each publisher's policy differs. If you plan to incorporate articles in your thesis, the terms can be negotiated with the publisher prior to signing the agreement. For more information, see Publishing your research . 

If you haven’t negotiated rights prior to publication and need to request permission from the publisher:

• check to see if the publisher has an online permission form on their website
• if the publisher does not have a form, this  UNSW copyright permission template  can be used to request permission
• tell them the amount of the work you wish to use (e.g. the whole work or a part/section)
• state clearly that you are seeking permission to use the work for non-commercial purposes
• consider asking permission for future use of the material (e.g. conference presentations)
• be conscious that the copyright owner has the right to say no
• be aware that a copyright owner may charge a fee or ask you to sign a licence agreement
• allow plenty of time, as it may take months for the permission to be granted

UNSWorks is the UNSW Open Access institutional repository which enables UNSW researchers to make their research outputs freely available and accessible. 

In accordance with UNSW’s Open Access Policy, when depositing your thesis into UNSWorks, you grant UNSW a licence to make the thesis freely available online under a Creative Commons licence. 

As of 1 December 2021, all deposited theses will have a Creative Commons Attribution ( CC BY ) licence applied. This licence allows users to copy, share and adapt the material provided appropriate attribution is given to the creator. The licence also allows for commercial use.

Theses submitted prior to 1 Dec 2021, will have a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Licence ( CC BY-NC-ND ).

As the creator of the work, you retain copyright in the thesis as well as the right to use the thesis in future works (i.e. future articles, books, conference presentations).

As part of the depositing process, you must declare that you have obtained permission for any third party copyright materials within your thesis. If you have been unable to obtain permission, the third party copyright material must be removed from the public version of your thesis.

Find out more about requesting permissions for third party copyright materials within your thesis. 

UNSW staff and students can contact [email protected] for assistance with a copyright query or to arrange a copyright information session.

Related resources

Depositing your thesis

Copyright log (257KB DOCX)

Australian Copyright Council Information Sheet: Permission: How to Get It

• Last Updated: May 17, 2024 4:26 PM

• Copyright and research

Copyright and your thesis

Researchers own copyright in their thesis. Under copyright, researchers have certain rights in their thesis such as:

• reproduction rights.
• publishing rights.
• communication rights, such as making the thesis available online.

As authors, researchers also have moral rights over their theses.

In some cases, research agreements or publishing agreements may affect the rights of a researcher's work, such as determining if a thesis can be made available on open access or if a thesis is connected to an embargo period.

Making a thesis available on open access

Before making a thesis available on open access, check that there are no legal or contractual qualifiers connected to the planned Open Access material release. Below are some possible examples:

• The clearance of any third-party material rights when they are included in the thesis.
• Any agreements/contracts, involving pre-published works.
• Any pending patent applications.
• The terms of research or funding agreements.
• The inclusion of any politically or legally sensitive information.

Dealing with copyright material created by other people

Seek permission from the copyright owner before including third-party copyright material in a thesis, unless there is a licence, agreement or exception that allows the inclusion of the third-party works in the thesis. Permission does not need to be sought if:

• Copyright in the work has  expired .
• An  insubstantial portion is included, for example, quotes from a book or journal article. Be careful if using quotes or excerpts from short works such as songs, poems or pieces of music as small portions are less likely to be considered insubstantial.
• An express  license allows the inclusion of the work, in the thesis, e.g. a contract, website conditions.
• Creative Commons material, copyright owner has explicitly waived copyright, etc.
• Use is covered under  fair dealing provisions .

Particular care should be taken if the thesis includes music, sound recordings or films as clearing the rights for this material can be difficult.

If unable to clear the rights for third party copyright material, it may be possible to publish a redacted version of the thesis on open access. A redacted version is one with any uncleared copyright material removed. For more information see the section on redacted version of your thesis.

Make sure that all third-party copyright material is acknowledged in theses, include full bibliographic citations.

Seeking permission to use copyright material

It is important to start the process of obtaining permission, as soon as possible when seeking permission to clear the rights to use third-party copyright material. Obtaining permission is an often lengthy and complex process. Sometimes a licensing fee may have to be paid, as it may not be possible to obtain permission.

All permission requests must be in writing. Keep copies of all permission documents as records of what permissions have been obtained. These records are considered legal documents and need to be kept for the copyright length of the thesis or as long as the thesis remains in open access. The University may request access to these permission documents.

Theses may need to be embargoed or published in redacted versions, where the third -party material has been removed while permission is being obtained or because permission cannot be obtained.

Refer to the Requesting permission from a copyright owner to reproduce material page for information on how to seek permission to use third-party copyright material.

Listing third party copyright material

The preparation of graduate research theses' rules requires the listing of all third-party copyright material included in theses and whether permissions from the copyright owners has been obtained. These permissions will be included in any open access version of theses. Third-party copyright includes:

• Audio-visual material, including sound recordings – both musical and non-musical – or films.

When creating the list of third-party copyright material included in a thesis, please use the template for listing third party copyright material (DOCX 13.5 KB) .

Thesis Information: Copyright

• Introduction
• Reviewing Literature
• Supervisors
• Māori Postgraduates

Copyright and your thesis - a bundle of rights

Think of your thesis as a bundle of material from different sources, where copyright in each element may be owned by different people or organisations. Most of it will be your work, of course, but most theses contain images, diagrams, tables, data and words created by others. You can use these within certain limits, as explained below, but beyond those limits you may need permission. This takes time so don't leave it until the last minute. Don't worry, there's expert advice and support available from:

• Manager, Copyright & Open Access , and 
• Subject Librarians

After reading this guide, you might like to refer to the very detailed NZ Copyright Guidelines for Research Students 2nd ed. 2012.

You own your own work

As a student, you own copyright in your own work. This is made explicit in the University's Intellectual Property Rights of Graduate Research Students Policy . Note that there are some important provisos, such as when your research is externally funded.

In general, if you write text, make diagrams, create software, collect data, etc., then you own the copyright in those things. However, there can be grey areas, for example if you're using a survey tool developed by your supervisor or you're collecting data that is part of a larger set gathered by a research lab over many years. If you are unsure about who owns what talk to your supervisor or the University's copyright officer.

It's a really good idea, as suggested in the IP Rights policy, to develop an agreement in writing with your supervisor. Even when there is no commercial value in your work – which is true in most cases – it is still important to clarify expectations about what you create as part of your research. Think about what each of you might expect to happen after study: who can do what with the data you gather or materials you create? What will you or they publish based on the research? The important thing is to talk about it, agree, and put that agreement in writing in some form.

Access to your thesis via OUR Archive

The Submission tab of this guide goes into detail about the process for depositing the electronic version of your thesis, including details about permissions you gained for using others' work.

When you deposit your thesis you fill out an Author Declaration form, which includes a section called "Access to my thesis."

• Choosing the open access means your thesis will be free-to-read for anyone with an internet connection. They can read it, download a copy to their device, and quote or critique your work, as anyone can with any work.
• See below on choosing how to licence your work. 
• It's key to understand that copyright protects the expression of ideas, not ideas themselves. In publishing your ideas anywhere (e.g. even in a journal or a book), it is the article or book itself that is protected by copyright, not the ideas expressed or explained in it. 
• Removing barriers to your work has been shown to improve its impact through more diverse readership and citations . 
• You can choose to make your thesis abstract-only for six months, after which it will become free-to-read.
• Embargoing your thesis is different from choosing the abstract-only option for six months and requires approval.

Licensing your work

Your thesis is just like a book: hopefully people will want to read and reuse it. As copyright owner, you can decide whether you want to retain all rights or licence your work with an open access licence. Your options are:

• All rights reserved . All published books have a page called the "verso". This is the page that will say something like "All rights reserved (C) Jane Suzuki 2024. No part of this work may be copied without permission." For your thesis, you are automatically the copyright holder, even if you don't write any of this on it. The default copyright rules apply: you retain the standard rights under NZ copyright law as having the exclusive right to copy, share, adapt, translate, perform or otherwise communicate your work. However, as explained above, people can read it and download a personal copy or take out quotes. 
• Open Access / Creative Commons . Alternatively, you could choose to licence your thesis with a Creative Commons licence, which are a simple, legally-robust international standard by which you can tell other people about how they can access and reuse your work. For more explanation, watch the video below or see CC BY: what does it mean for scholarly articles?  
• How do I apply my choice of licence, whether it's all rights reserved or Creative Commons? It's as simple as writing the words, like the all rights reserved example above. If you go with Creative Commons, you can use their tool to select a licence and the text/logo that you can include on your own verso page in your thesis.

Creative Commons explained

Creative Commons Aotearoa NZ. (2011).  Creative Commons Licenses explained. < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyWdeNQ7fo0 >

Using the work of others

You will probably use things created by others in your thesis: images, diagrams, tables, maps, data, video, audio, etc. This is sometimes referred to as 'third party' copyright. You can sometimes use others' work without seeking permission but it depends on a few factors, as explained below.

And remember, if you co-authored a work with someone, they own a share of the copyright and need to grant permission too.

Copying where you don't need permission

• Open access
• Public domain
• Fair Dealing (Criticism & Review)
• Website terms

You don't always need permission to copy someone else's work. Use the tabs above, going from left to right, to see what might apply to material you want to include in your thesis.

Open Access material

You'll find more and more content on the web being made available under open licences that allow reuse. An individual work, such as a journal article, may include a copyright statement that allows reuse, such as this online article (find the word 'copyright' on the page) or printed on its PDF version ; sometimes websites include blanket statements that cover all the material on that site, such as Statistics NZ .

TIP: always check a website for a 'terms of use' or 'copyright' page and see what it says. If it says 'all rights reserved' or similar then you need to think about whether your use is fair dealing or to seek permission, as explained below.

Public domain (aka copyright has expired)

Copyright does expire, of course, which renders these questions null and void. However, working out whether copyright has expired is notoriously difficult, even for experts. It's best to get advice on this from the people listed as contacts above.

Fair dealing

Fair dealing (or 'fair use' in some parts of the world) is a key concept in copyright law. It allows any person to use copyrighted material in certain ways where you would otherwise have to seek the permission of the copyright holder. There are important limits and it is your decision as to whether your use would qualify as fair or not.

For research and private study you can make a single, working copy of a legally obtained original, though there would be limits to this (e.g. a chapter or 10% of a book; for rarer or older material you might be able to copy more - ask a librarian).

For the purpose of criticism or review (i.e. what you might do in your thesis), you might be able to copy someone else's work. Short quotations, properly attributed, are acceptable. It's trickier with things like images, which are a whole work in and of themselves, diagrams, tables, etc. Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I critiquing the work in some way or reviewing it? e.g. putting it in the context of other work in the discipline or comparing it to my own research results in this thesis. This question is critical: if you're just copying to save yourself some work and not commenting on it you should seek permission.
• Is the work commercially available for reuse?  Many publishers provide a means to licence use of their content in theses and books.
• Is the copying substantial?
• Could I just describe the thing in words or provide a link for readers and avoid copying altogether?

More on fair dealing:

• What is fair dealing with copyright material? (University website)
• Who puts the 'fair' in fair dealing? (External website)

Check a website's terms of use

Even websites that say they are all rights reserved sometimes say that certain uses are OK or that copying within certain limits are OK. Check the terms of use. For example, the American Psychological Association clearly explains what you need to seek permission for and what you don't (e.g. it says that up to three figures or tables are OK).

Copying where you need permission

• Seeking permission
• Whom do I ask?
• Recording Permission
• Thesis Deposit and Permissions

If your use of others' copyright material doesn't fit within what's outlined above, you may need to get permission.

TIP: with the larger commercial publishers, you will often find a standard form for requesting permissions. This is sometimes a link on a website's 'contact us' or 'terms / copyright' pages; other times you might find a 'Get  permissions' link on pages for individual articles. These forms usually have boxes and drop down menus to specify how much you want to use and for what purpose. Check out a video on this.

Otherwise, contact the copyright owner and advise them that you intend to use their work, detail the pages, graphs, diagrams, etc. you want to use and in what ways. Do this in writing so you have a record.

• Sample letter to use copyrighted work in a thesis or publication

With traditionally published material, the publisher will most likely hold copyright so ask them (not the author). With Open Access material, you don't need to ask because the open access licence gives you permission up front. If the copyright holder is an individual person then contact the person; if the person has died then you need to contact their estate. If you want to use material held by galleries, libraries, archives and museums, they may require permission. Note that your use might still be allowed without permission, as outlined in the boxes above this one. However, there may also be non-copyright reasons why you can't copy something, like indigenous property rights.

TIP: if you have an image and you can't remember where you got it from, you can 'reverse search' for images using Google image search or Tineye . Basically you can upload an image (rather than entering text) and the search will show you images it thinks are the same or similar. This can be useful in tracking down where images came from and who might own the copyright.

When you receive permission to use a work in your thesis, record the details, such as:

• who you sought permission from,
• what permission you sought,
• which material it relates to,
• what sort of permission was granted e.g. was it granted for print use but not digital,
• the relevant dates

One way to record these is to use a Permissions log. Another option is to use reference management software such as Endnote or Zotero.

In the thesis itself, you should not only attribute each source as you normally would but also add a rights statement such as 'Copyright XYZ Publishing, used with permission' or describe the licence that applies. For work licensed under Creative Commons, check their best practice for attributions .

When Permission is Not Granted (including not hearing back)

Some copyright owners may not grant you permission to use their work. Some may not respond (or even exist anymore!). If you don't hear back that doesn't mean you can use it. If you don't get permission then consider:

• linking to the original;
• finding an openly-licensed alternative (see the 'Finding things you can reuse' box below);
• reworking the material so that it is no longer a direct quotation or duplication, referencing it and indicating that the material has been adapted or modified; or
• reducing the amount of material quoted so that it falls within fair dealing, and reference it.

Permissions Log - one of the additional files you will upload when you deposit the electronic version of your thesis. Such evidence provided to the Library will be retained offline , together with the corresponding thesis. 

If permission to use works of others has either not been sought, or has been refused, those particular items in your thesis (photos, tables, etc) will not be made accessible within Otago University Research (OUR) Archive, or your thesis can be submitted at Abstract only level .  Add a note per item to indicate which have been suppressed, e.g. “This image has been removed for copyright reasons”.

You may have other additional files, e.g. sound, video, image or data, that are part of your research output. Provide a URL or option to download when you deposit them.

Finding things you can reuse

For openly-licensed works you can reuse, use the search engines on the following sites. In most cases, you need to use licensing filters on the advanced search or the results page.

Photographs, images

Europeana , Digital Public Library of America , DigitalNZ (all public aggregators of millions of works)

Flickr , Everystockphoto , Google images (using Search tools/Usage rights filter on the results page), Gratisography , Pixabay , Freepik

Wikimedia Commons (includes graphs, diagrams, ...)

Wellcome images ("...ranging from medical and social history to contemporary healthcare and science.")

Soundcloud , Jamendo

Publishing articles or chapters during or after your thesis

Many students will consider or even be expected to publish articles or chapters while working on or after completing their thesis. This is fine in most cases but you should always check the policies of publishers you're considering or likely to submit to. These policies should make clear whether the publisher accepts thesis-related work. Consult the MIT Library website for a comprehensive list of major publishers' policies . If the publisher you're looking at isn't listed there then search the publisher's website for 'thesis' or 'prior publication' or consult their information for authors.

This is especially important for students completing a thesis by publication.

Note that you will always be able to include your publications in your thesis and have it examined -- the restriction may be on whether your final thesis can be made free-to-access via OUR Archive when you make your thesis deposit.

A related issue is that the rules for what you might be able to copy in your thesis can change when publishing with a commercial publisher. Even if something is allowed by the law (e.g. fair dealing for criticism and review to quote a short extract from another article), some publishers may require you to clear permission for everything . In other words, this is their practice as a matter of policy.. 

• << Previous: Reviewing Literature
• Next: Writing >>
• Last Updated: May 15, 2024 9:01 AM
• URL: https://otago.libguides.com/thesisinformation

Copyright & Your Scholarship

• Using Copyrighted Sources
• Your Rights as an Author
• Sharing & Preserving Your Work
• Copyrighted Materials in Your Thesis or Dissertation
• Access Options When Submitting

Using Quotations and Text

In general, you are fine to quote from copyrighted texts with proper attribution. Keep in mind that you should use only the amount of text necessary to support your argument or conduct your own analysis; this is good scholarship and best practice in adhering to copyright law. If you are conducting research in an archive or have access to unpublished texts, a good resource is the Society of American Archivists   "Copyright and Unpublished Material"   guide.

Using Images and Video

Using images & video.

As you incorporate images or video clips into your work, ask the following questions to decide whether or not you need to get permission:

Is the work in copyright?  If you're using a video or recent image created within the past 40 years, it is very likely protected by copyright. If you're using older material, it may or may not be protected.  This chart   is a great starting point when deciding whether or not the image is copyrighted.

If it is protected, can you make the case for fair use?  Fair use is a part of U.S. Copyright Law that supports limited uses of copyrighted materials for education and scholarship. In the context of theses and dissertations, you may be able to rely on fair use rather than obtaining specific permission from the copyright holder. As one way to assess this, ask yourself whether or not the image or video is necessary to your argument? For instance, are you analyzing the work in your writing or does it directly support a particular point you are trying to make? If yes, your use is   more likely to be fair .  If the image or video is mainly there to make your work more visually appealing, but without really adding anything crucial to your argument, that use is   less likely to be fair .

Can you use an image that is in the public domain or royalty free?  If you don't think your use of a specific image falls within fair use, consider using a free-to-use alternative. Most images created before the 20th century and many images created after that are in the public domain, meaning their copyright protections have expired or they were never protected in the first place. Many websites also post images labeled as "royalty free" or "openly licensed." For links to websites containing images and audio or video files that may be in the public domain or openly licensed, please visit our research guide: Finding and Using Public Domain and Openly Licensed Media .

Do you need permission?  If you want to use a specific image or video, have determined your use isn't fair, and can't find a suitable alternative, you may be able to seek permission from the copyright holder or pay a licensing fee. If you know the name of the photographer, you may be able to find their contact information online. On YouTube, you can typically send a message by going to a user's "about" page (though keep in mind that many people upload videos without owning the copyright). Note that most archives and special collections do not own copyright to many of the materials that they own; staff at such institutions may be able to give you information about the creator but often cannot give you permission to use the item.

Using Data, Charts, and Graphs

Using data, charts, & graphs.

U.S. Copyright Law excludes ideas or facts from copyright protection. This means that research data may receive little or no protection on its own; to hold copyright, a researcher would need to creatively organize, compile, or otherwise add value to the underlying factual data.  So in many cases, you are fine from a copyright perspective to analyze or republish research data. You should still consider the privacy and ethical norms of your field, any terms of use or contracts you agree to with data providers, and the implications of patent or trade secret laws, since these might limit what you can do with the data.

Similarly, you may typically republish a chart or graph that conveys factual information in a straightforward, uncreative way (e.g. a simple bar graph, pie chart, etc.). If the chart or graph involves more creative design or infographic elements, annotation, etc., you will need to consider fair use, get permission from the publisher or author, or create your own illustration based on the underlying facts. 

• << Previous: Theses, Dissertations, & Creative Projects
• Next: Access Options When Submitting >>
• Last Updated: Oct 25, 2022 10:21 AM
• URL: https://bsu.libguides.com/copyrightscholarship

• Cambridge Libraries

Study Skills

Copyright for researchers: copyright and theses.

• Copyright introduction
• Authorship and IP
• 3rd party copyright
• Creative Commons
• Copyright and theses
• Copyright terminology

Why is this important?

Following a decision made by the Board of Graduate Studies at its meeting on 4 July 2017, from 1 October 2017 all PhD students will be required to deposit both a hard copy and an electronic copy of their thesis to the University Library. More information on the requirements to deposit your thesis can be found on the Office of Scholarly Communication webpages.

All PhD students will need to understand how copyright relates to their thesis. If you are a student at the University of Cambridge who is preparing a thesis for submission, you will need to consider both your own copyright in your work and any third party copyright material you have included in your thesis.

Third party copyright and your thesis

Copyright held by someone other than yourself is known as  third party copyright . If you are using material created by others in your thesis, you will need to investigate whether you should seek permission to include it. If you do include this material in your thesis, you must ensure you credit the copyright holder and the source. More information on third party copyright can be found on the Office of Scholarly Communication copyright webpages .

We recommend that you obtain permission to include material as you are working on your research rather than leaving clearances to the last minute. It can take time to ensure you have obtained the correct clearance and if you do not obtain permission to include the material, you may wish to investigate alternatives or redact the material in your final submission .

Different copyright rules apply to the hardbound copy of your thesis that is deposited in the library for reference and the electronic version of your thesis that is deposited in the Apollo repository . This is because the hardbound copy of your thesis is considered to be unpublished and the electronic version, if made available online, is published. For further information on what to clear and how to clear it, see the Office of Scholarly Communication's webpages  'Your hardbound thesis and third party copyright'  and 'Your e-thesis and third party copyright' .

University of Cambridge researchers own the copyright in their own work unless they are sponsored by an external party who may have rights over the material. If the researcher owns the copyright in their work they are free to make it available as they wish.

Depositing your thesis

Electronic deposit does not mean that the full text of the thesis will automatically be available. Students are given the choice of different access levels and must discuss their choice with their Supervisor, before uploading a signed access confirmation form [PDF] at the time the thesis is uploaded for deposit to Apollo. Access levels include the option to make a thesis available Open Access immediately or to embargo access for an initial 12 months, during which time the metadata and abstract of a thesis (but not the full text) will be findable in the repository. For further information on the different access levels and how they will be managed, see  t he dedicated page on the Office of Scholarly Communication website .

• Digital Thesis Submission System If you are ready to submit your electronic thesis you can do so via this link.

Copyright and theses by other authors

If you are including quotations from theses by other authors, you will need to check the copyright status of the work you are quoting, ensure you cite the work correctly and clear the quotation if necessary. If the thesis you are quoting from is an unpublished work, you are required under copyright law to contact the copyright holder to gain clearance to include the quotation in your thesis.

• << Previous: Creative Commons
• Next: Resources >>
• Last Updated: Feb 16, 2024 2:23 PM
• URL: https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/copyright/researchers

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