When publishing your work with a commercial publisher it is likely that you will sign something known as a publishing agreement. Many of these agreements include a transfer of copyright from the author to the publisher. This process means that you have given away your economic rights (the right to make money from your work) to the publisher. This is done to protect the interests of the publisher who will invest time and money in preparing a manuscript for publication.
It is important that you always read any publication agreement carefully before signing it to ensure that you are happy with what it says. Researchers subject to funder Open Access mandates should also check to make sure that the agreement they are signing is compliant with these. It is also good practice to check that any agreement should be consistent with any other collaborations or contracts you have committed to. More information about Open Access can be found here. If you are not happy with any part of the agreement you can talk to the publisher before signing and they may agree to change parts of the contract.
In some circumstances you are allowed to use third party materials for your own private study. You are able to make single copies of some material for your own use only and cannot share these copies with others. There are also exceptions to copyright for purposes such as Text and Data Mining and making accessible copies for students with disabilities. Remember that this does not apply to sharing your thesis online, which counts as a form of publication.
Using this third party material without seeking permission must fall under what is known as ‘fair dealing for the purposes of criticism or review’. This means that the use must not be excessive or hinder the ability of the copyright holder to make money from their work. For example, you could include a short extract of a play to critique it but not a whole act. It is also important that this material is discussed in your work in some way rather than merely being used as an illustration.
For example in the UK fair dealing argues that you can make copies of copyright protected material in specific circumstances:
Although some uses of copyright material fall under exceptions for education, most of the time you will need to seek permission. The first step in doing this is to establish the identity of the copyright holder which in many cases will be either the author or the publisher.
You should check the work you want to use for any copyright statements which give this information e.g. © The author. Publishers often have a Rights and Permissions section on their website which can also be useful. If you want to use material from a website try contacting the webmaster.
You need to obtain informed open consent to use materials. This means that you need to make clear exactly how the work will be used and how you plan to make your work available. For example it is not enough to say that you wish to use material in your theses, you need to make clear that this thesis will be available online.
When approaching rights holders you should include:
A template permission letter can be found here [PDF]. If the copyright holder is a publisher or academic journal you may want to use the Copyright Clearance Centre tool to request permission. If permission is granted you should acknowledge this in your work e.g. “Permission to reproduce this [details of content] has been granted by [rights holder information] “. You should always keep a copy of any correspondence about permissions in case you need to refer back to it.
Orphan works are items currently protected by copyright but where the copyright holder is untraceable or unknown. This is not something which you can just assume – there are clear steps to follow and attempts must be made to find the copyright holder. If none can be found then you can apply for permission to declare the item an orphan work.
University of Cambridge (2021). Copyright for Researchers: 3rd party copyright. https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/copyright/researchers/thirdpartycopyright
