Whether you are a student or academic, you should consider copyright throughout your research project - from the access and use of resources, to publishing and selecting an open access licence.
Observing copyright requirements at each stage ensures good governance practices and supports academic integrity principles.
The Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research also recommends including copyright in the planning stage of a research project, among other considerations.
The Intellectual Property Policy provides that students retain the Intellectual Property – including copyright – created during their studies in most circumstances. This includes research outputs such as theses.
However, there are circumstances where the University or another third party may assert ownership over student-created Intellectual Property. For example, where a work output:
These predominantly relate to the Intellectual Property in research outputs that have significant commercialisation potential, such as for inventions, software or plant varieties.
Under the Intellectual Property Policy, University staff members retain copyright in ‘scholarly and creative works’ such as books, journal articles, conference papers and artistic works. This does not include copyright in teaching materials, which is usually retained by the University.
For works of joint ownership, the corresponding (or lead) author is typically authorised to sign publishing agreements and grant permissions on behalf of the other authors. This can be formalised through a co-author agreement.
Open Education Resources (OER), including open access publications, consist of materials that are in the public domain or have been released under a Creative Commons or other open licence that permits some degree of use without purchase or permission. OER materials include textbooks, journals, courseware, software, datasets, images, music and video, among others.
The Copyright Compliance Procedure prioritises the use of OERs for University activities wherever possible. OERs are preferred for research projects as there are no limitations on copying them and they generally don’t require permission for re-use in a publication.
See the Open Education Resource Guide for information on how to find OERs by discipline and format.
The University Library has commercial licences in place with over 120 vendors to provide staff and students with resources such as journals, data, ebooks, news, guides, audio, and video recordings.
While there are distinct licence terms for each resource, they typically permit users to access (view) and copy (download), albeit sometimes with certain limits. Some vendors also permit text and data mining (TDM). Check the specific terms or contact Ask Library for assistance.
If no licence is applicable, the fair dealing exception for research or study permits copying of a reasonable portion of a work. The research or study can be personal or informal but does not extend to making research results public.
A reasonable portion is generally up to:
If copying more than a reasonable portion, or copying other types of materials such as an artistic work, sound recording, film or broadcast, the following fairness factors must be considered, in aggregate:
See the Australia Copyright Council Research or Study Fact Sheet for more information on assessing the fairness factors.
Copyright subsistence generally requires some degree of human authorship. As such, datasets of raw data tend not to attract copyright, while those that have been processed or compiled in some way may. For example, a spreadsheet of raw figures logged directly from a weather station would likely not be protected by copyright until that data had been cleaned or arranged in some way by an author using the requisite skill and judgment.
Publishers generally require either assignment of all copyright or a licence to certain rights to proceed with publishing.
Publishing agreements can be categorised as shown in the table below. Note that assignment of copyright and exclusive licences are similar in that the author retains very limited rights to the work. Conversely, open licences (such as Creative Commons) are effectively a type of non-exclusive licence but offered to everyone. An open licence may also be combined with one of the other agreement types.
| Licence type | Description | Copyright Owner | Can you use your own work without permission? | Can others use your work without permission? | Authority to grant permission. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assignment | Transfers copyright to a new owner. | Publisher | No | No | Publisher (or delegate) |
| Exclusive licence | Grants rights solely to another party. | Author | No | No | Publisher (or delegate) |
| Non-exclusive licence | The same rights can be granted to multiple parties. | Author | Yes | Yes, within limits. | Author |
| Open Licence | Blanket grant of rights to everyone. | Usually the author. | Yes | Yes, within limits. | Usually the author. |
Key considerations for authors in relation to publishing include:
| Tip | Description |
|---|---|
| Avoid copyright assignment or exclusive licensing. | Not retaining the rights means you will have to go back to the publisher for permission to reuse or quote from your own work. Agreements should at least include a licence back to the author in these circumstances. |
| Publish open access. | Open access (OA) ensures wider distribution as researchers and institutions don’t have to pay to read or use the work. The University Open Access Procedure requires research outputs to be publicly available and provides advice about where you should deposit your research output (section 4). See the Publishing Guide for more information. |
| Include an addendum to retain certain rights. | The University Open Access Procedure and research funder policies may require that authors retain certain rights. See the Open Access Guide for more information. For non-open access journals, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) provides an addendum template that helps to select which rights to retain. |
| Avoid author processing charges (APCs). | The Directory of Open Access Journals. (DOAJ) can filter out titles with APC fees. Further, the University’s Read & Publish Agreements negate APC fees with certain publishers as they are effectively covered by Library subscription fees. |
| Avoid unnecessary embargo periods. | Publisher embargoes prevent the work from being made OA for a certain duration. See the Open Access Guide for more information. |
| Ensure rights reversion if not accepted. | Where an agreement is required upon submission, all rights should revert back to the author if the article is rejected. |
| Use a co-author agreement. | For works of joint authorship, formally designate the corresponding author and their rights and responsibilities over contributing authors to avoid any future uncertainties. |
It is good practice to assess the potential for copyright clearance for each third-party material before it is included in a project. While clearances for journal articles are usually straightforward, other materials can be challenging if there are multiple, distinct rightsholders or if it's of commercial value. Note that inclusion of material from your own publications may still require clearance if it was co-authored or if it was assigned or exclusively licensed to a publisher through a publishing agreement.
For HDR students, theses are added to the Adelaide Research and Scholarship repository as part of the final thesis lodgement process. Any third party materials included in the thesis should be declared on the Final Thesis Lodgement form and copyright clearance for each item indicated on the Third Party Copyright Clearance Form, including documentation of any permissions or licences acquired.
The Third Party Copyright Clearance Form is also useful for tracking copyright clearances for publication purposes.
The following provides some of the typical clearance methods.
Not just confined to copyright aspects, ICIP protocols guide the use of Indigenous cultural material, with a particular emphasis on early and ongoing consultation with and consent from the relevant communities.
See the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Guide (Research) for more information.
Copyright durations can be broadly summarised as follows, however there are numerous exceptions depending on the type of material and other factors, such as the publication date.
Copyright in Australia has also expired for:
See the Attorney General’s Department Duration of Copyright table for specific durations by material type.
As stated above, OERs and open access publications consist of materials that are in the public domain or have been released under a Creative Commons (CC) or other open licence that permits some degree of free use without purchase or permission.
It is worth checking the fine print on OER licences to ensure that all conditions are met for the licence to apply. For instance, all CC licences mandate attribution, while CC-SA also requires that material can only be re-used if it is distributed under the same CC-SA licence, which may be prohibitive for certain publishers.
Consider referencing or citing a resource if it isn’t critical to include a reproduction or excerpt. For online materials, linking or embedding content means the source website is serving up the material rather than having to reproduce it locally. Embedding should only be employed if the third party site expressly permits it. YouTube, for example, provides specific HTML embed code to enable videos to be served elsewhere.
Further, the content should only be linked or embedded from an official source or channel to avoid liability for authorisation infringement as well as reputational risk. For example, links to videos on the official National Geographic YouTube channel would be acceptable, but links to unofficial sources that have no clear affiliation with the rightsholder should be omitted. Official YouTube channels can usually be identified through the tick symbol after the account name.
Obtaining permission is perhaps the most common and reliable method of copyright clearance.
For most journal articles as well as many textbooks, permissions can be requested through the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) Rightslink Marketplace . Online journal articles often have a rights or permissions tab near the heading that will link through to Rightslink and include the correct citation.
Alternatively, permissions may need to be obtained from rightsholder(s) directly. The © copyright notice should identify the primary rightsholder, but if it's not clear, try the publisher or author first. Publishers often have a permissions and licensing contact point on their website.
While some rightsholders might require a more formal request including full details of the intended publication, the wording below should be sufficient for email requests in most circumstances:
Can you kindly grant permission for a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to copy and communicate the following item for the purpose of publishing a thesis/article in the Adelaide University institutional repository / journal title / textbook / website.
The work will be cited and referenced in line with University referencing guides.
Regards,
[name]
[institution]
Performers hold certain rights in sound recordings and audiovisual (film) recordings of their performances, including the right to grant or refuse consent to the reproduction and communication of a performance (since 1989); co-ownership of copyright in a sound recording of a performance (2005); and moral rights (2007). The rights to control the use of a performance generally last for 50 years for sound recordings and 20 years for audiovisual recordings.
Performances include dramatic, literary, musical and variety acts, as well as interviews and speeches.
To avoid any uncertainty, its good practice to obtain releases from performers when making a recording. Alternatively, permission clearances may be required from performers in relation to third party recordings or recordings that don’t have suitable releases in place.
The University has a Talent Release form that can be used for this purpose. Note that this form designates the performer’s rights to the University.
There must be sufficient commentary or analysis about the third-party material for the fair dealing for criticism or review to apply, rather than the material being included simply to illustrate a point or for comparison.
See Copyright Overview for more information.
The University has a Music Licence with APRA-AMCOS, ARIA and PPCA.
In addition to onsite performances, the licence permits audio and unedited video recordings of University musical performances (including commercially released works) to be streamed on the University website, such as the Adelaide University repository for theses.
For commercially released works, the work must be represented in the APRA-AMCOS catalogue for the licence to apply. For works not represented by APRA-AMCOS, such as an original composition by a student, permissions should be sought from the rightsholders for the musical work (composition) and the sound recording, if necessary.
See Copyright Collecting Society Licences for specific details.
An item might be considered an orphan work if the rightsholder genuinely cannot be identified or located to obtain permission or determine copyright status. Many publishers won’t accept manuscripts containing third party material that aren’t suitably cleared, while others might proceed with publication after completing a risk assessment. Contact the Ask Library for assistance on clearing orphan works.
Visit the Open Access Guide for information on selecting the most appropriate OA licence for your project.
