Research Support: Copyright for Research

When reviewing a work, writing an academic paper, or doing most other kinds of academic research, you will likely want to quote from copyrighted works. This is permitted under s.30 of the CDPA, so long as your usage can be said to be Fair Dealing and your quotation is no more than is required to achieve your purpose. This is allowed for any type of copyrighted work, including images.

However, you cannot just reproduce the material without accompanying it with genuine critique or putting it into context, by way of discussion or assessment.

You must also include sufficient acknowledgement to identify the creator of the work and the title of the material. In practice, this is done with referencing and citation – which is a copyright requirement as well as an academic convention.

If you want to include images alongside your academic writing, you need to ensure your usage falls under one of the exceptions to copyright or you have permission from the copyright holder. The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) operates a licencing system to make it easier to acquire appropriate permissions. DACS are often able to licence images for academic journal publishing free of charge.

Copyright guidance concerning the incorporation of other people’s work into your research still applies for conference presentations. You should ensure you have permission to use any third party materials if they are in copyright. However, you may be able to use extracts of works under Fair Dealing exceptions, and the exceptions for Illustration for Instruction (s.32 CDPA), can still be relied on, although educational licences such as the CLA and ERA are not applicable. Caution is advised in this area, as many conference presentations are recorded and shared online, making any breaches of copyright a higher risk. 

Various forms of art and design that incorporate copyrighted works, such as appropriation art and collaging, have resulted in contentious copyright issues regarding their validity under copyright law. If you are incorporating copyrighted works into an artwork, and you are using a  ‘substantial part’ of the work, you need to ensure your usage falls under one of the exceptions to copyright or you have permission from the copyright holder. The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) operates a licencing system to make it easier to acquire appropriate permissions. 

Written accoutrement (titles, names, phrases, and slogans) are not usually subject to copyright. This is a good thing, otherwise calling your work Untitled would be a violation of copyright!

Additional information about artworks and copyright can be found on the DACS website.

Copyright is a right that can be transferred, sold or waived. Many academic journals require authors to transfer the copyright of their article to the publisher. Once you have signed a copyright transfer agreement with a publisher, you must ask the publisher’s permission to re-use your publication in new publications or in teaching. However, it is possible for authors to negotiate the terms of these contracts and retain some of their copyright. Template forms have been developed to assist with this, see the SPARC Author Addendum. 

Artists are also frequently asked to "waive" their moral rights, another protection conferred by copyright law. It is extremely inadvisable to waive your moral rights: this is your right to be identified as the creator of your work and your right to object to derogatory treatment of your work.

The NLA (Newspaper Licensing Agency) licence permits copying from the print and online versions of all the major UK daily and Sunday newspapers (excluding The Financial Times), as well as some regional newspapers.

The NLA licence only covers printing; it does not extend to making digital copies via scanning. 

The Educational Recording Agency (ERA) Licensing Scheme permits staff at educational establishments in the UK to copy, access and use TV and radio programmes for non-commercial educational purposes. In practice, this is mostly done through the BoB National service.

Creative Commons (CC) is a worldwide licence. Any individuals, no matter where in the world they are located, may reuse material that has been made available under CC Licence. You can easily find materials licenced for reuse under Creative Commons using the Creative Commons Search. You can also use materials available in Open Educational Resources, which can be searched for using the OER Commons.  CC Licensing does not replace copyright; you need to abide by any restrictions on the licence, or doing so is a violation of copyright.