Introduction

This  guide aims to help researchers understand the copyright implications of using other people’s content (publications, data , images, software, etc.), often referred to as 3rd party copyright materials, in their research and publications. Separate guidance covering the University’s Intellectual Property Policy is also available.

Researchers create a variety of copyright works, including, research outputs,  research data, computer software, artefacts, etc., and they use other people's material in their research and publications. An understanding of  copyright is also essential when complying with  requirements for outputs and data to be published open access (OA)  or signing contracts and licensing agreements with publishers, funders or commercial partners. Specific guidance and advice relating to OA for research publications and data are available from the Open access and Research Data Management research support pages. 

Copyright is a legal right that protects the copyright owner and offers protection against others copying or reproducing their work. The CPDA 1988 covers books, novels, technical reports, manuals, paintings, sculptures, photographs, music, songs, dramatic works, films, television, and radio broadcasts, engineering, technical plans, promotional literature, advertising, computer software and databases. Copyright law aims to strike a balance between the rights of the copyright owner to control how their work is used and the rights of re-use subject to certain limits and conditions. 

When re-using third party copyright material in publications or online, the material will need to be either covered by a licence that allows this use or you will need to have permission from the copyright owner. When publishing journal articles, book chapters, books, etc., the publisher will  ask you to clear copyright in all the content you want to include. 

However, as part of your private non commercial research activities, there are a number of copyright exceptions that will allow the use 3rd party copyright material without infringing copyright. The most commonly used  exceptions for research are listed below. 

s29 Research and private study. This exception allows researchers to copy  limited quantities of a copyright work for research purposes. This might include making a copy of a journal article or a chapter provided the use falls under the 'fair dealing' usage. Fair dealing is not defined in UK law so it down to the researcher to decide whether the use is fair. Further information on fair dealing is available in the FAQs below. Sufficient acknowledgement (citation) of the work is always required unless there is a specific reason why this is not possible. 

s 29a Copies for text and data analysis for non-commercial research. This exception was introduced in 2014 and allows text and data mining for non-commercial research purposes. Text and data mining (TDM) is the use of computational analysis usually carried out on large datasets, which can help uncover patterns which would take thousands of hours for a human to search by hand. In order to undertake TDM, usually the entire work will need to be copied so that it can be run through some form of computational analysis software. Lawful access to a source is required, which usually means either the library or you have a valid subscription to the content. 

s30 Criticism, review, quotation. This exception was  broadened in the 2014 update to the CPDA 2018 to cover quotation for any purpose. Like S.29, research and private study it is a 'Fair dealing' exception so sufficient acknowledgement (citation) of the work is required. Also, the amount that can be copied is not defined in law and usually it is used for short quotations. Further information on fair dealing is available in the FAQs below.

s32 Illustration for instruction. This exception covers a person giving or receiving instruction (or preparing for giving or receiving instruction), which includes setting examination questions, communicating the questions to pupils and answering the questions. It is also subject to fair dealing usage and requires sufficient acknowledgement of the 3rd party material. This exception would  not cover using 3rd party copyright material in publications but it would cover use of material in the version of a postgraduate thesis submitted for examination.  However, this exception would not cover the inclusion of the material in the e-thesis deposited and made openly available from our institutional repository. If one of the other exceptions did not cover the usage in the e-thesis or written permission was not obtained from the copyright owner, this material would need to be redacted from the e-thesis. If you need to redact information from your e-thesis, email repository@abertay.ac.uk to discuss how this should be done and what versions of your work you will need to upload to Pure.

FAQs

What is fair dealing?
What copyright implications should I consider for my e-thesis?
Can I include PDFs of my published articles in my e-thesis?
Can I use text and data mining for my research at the University?
I am presenting at a conference do I need to worry about copyright?
Can I upload and share my articles online using websites such as ResearchGate and Academia.edu?

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