Copyright for researchers
As a researcher, you need to consider copyright during your research and when publishing your work. You should familiarise yourself with the information on the Copyright Essentials page. This provides a basic introduction to copyright and using copyright exceptions.
The University’s Intellectual Property Policy explains how works produced for personal study or research purposes by the University, its employees or students are protected. The University waives its ownership of copyright over scholarly works created or authored by employees as a result of their research and scholarly activity.
How much can I copy for my research and private study?
You are likely to need to photocopy, scan or download material owned by third parties for research and personal study. You may also want to include this material in your thesis or when publishing your research in a journal.
The library subscribes to the Copyright Licence Agency (CLA) Higher Education Licence. This enables you to make limited copies and scans of materials covered by the licence. Under the terms of the licence, you can copy:
- One whole chapter from a book
- Two whole articles from a journal issue
- One short story, poem or play (not exceeding 10 pages in length) from an anthology
- One whole scene from a play
- One whole paper from a set of conference proceedings
- One whole report of a single case from a volume of judicial proceedings
Or 10% of the total publication, whichever is the greater.
Copying may also be allowed under one of the copyright exceptions or if material is available under an open licence such as Creative Commons. There is a copyright exception that permits you to create copies for research and private study, providing your use is ‘fair’. This copy must be for your individual use only. Find out more about exceptions, fair dealing and our copyright licences.
Text and data analysis for non-commercial research
You may be able to make copies of copyright materials for text and date mining. You must have lawful access to the source either through a personal or university subscription. Analysis must be for non-commercial research only. Once you have established authorised access to the work, you may analyse text and data by using automated/computational techniques to identify patterns and trends.
Find out more about using and finding secondary research data on our data management pages:
Can I use third party materials in my PhD thesis or published work such as a journal article?
Most third party materials like books, journals, images and other web content are subject to copyright. You must obtain permission to use them in your thesis or published work. If you are publishing to a journal or monograph then you should always check and follow the specific guidance of your publisher.
There are exceptions for criticism, review or quotation that may cover the reuse of quotes and some figures and images in scholarly research publications, subject to fair dealing. If a copyright exception does not cover your use of a resource or image then we advise you find material published under an open licence such as Creative Commons (see below) which enables reuse without the need to seek permission. See the Copyright Essentials page for a list of sources of free images and resources.
If your use is not covered by an appropriate copyright exception or an open licence then you will need to contact the copyright holder to obtain rights clearance. Further guidance on this is provided below.