Copyright & your thesis

Once you’ve finally finished your PhD at the University of Wolverhampton, as well as breathing a massive sigh of relief, you can make your thesis available in the institutional repository (WIRE) and share your research with the world. The repository provides a space for anyone interested in your research to access it and as it’s indexed by Google you’ll potentially have a worldwide audience as anyone should be able to search for it and read it. Some of our theses are very popular and have many views and downloads every month.

Before your thesis can be shared on WIRE it will need to be prepared for deposit. Part of the preparation involves checking you have dealt with any copyrighted material in the correct way. In this blogpost we’ll be looking at what this involves and why it’s important.

Why do you need to think about copyright?

When you’ve written your thesis, unless you are sponsored by an external party who may have rights over your research, you will own the copyright of your work. Any 3^rd party copyrighted material you have used however, still belongs to the person who created or published it and you’ll need to clear it before your thesis can be shared in the repository.

You don’t need to clear copyrighted material in the version of your thesis that is going to be examined- this is because there is a copyright exception that allows you to use copyrighted material for purposes of private study. But when it comes to sharing your work publicly this exception doesn’t apply. You will therefore need to address copyright in the version of your thesis that will be deposited in WIRE once your PhD has been awarded. 

Which material needs copyright clearance?

The sorts of things that count as 3^rd party copyright material include:

• images, e.g. photographs, illustrations, maps, charts
• quotations, e.g. passages of text or music
• material that you have published such as journal articles (if a publisher has asked you to transfer copyright to them during the publication process)

If you want to include any of this material in your thesis on WIRE you will need to check:

• if the copyright has expired OR
• if the material is covered by a licence that allows re-use (e.g. Creative Commons) OR
• if you can identify an applicable exception to copyright law and your use constitutes ‘fair dealing’ OR
• if you can obtain permission from the copyright holder to include it in your e-thesis

If none of these options are available, then you will need to redact the material from your thesis. Redaction involves removing the material from your thesis and guidance on how to do this can be found here.

What if you don’t clear copyrighted material in your thesis?

If you haven’t cleared any 3^rd party copyright before you deposit your thesis there could be repercussions for you and the university. The copyright holder may request that you remove the content, and your thesis would need to be taken down from the repository. As unauthorised use breaches copyright law, it’s also possible that the copyright holder might take legal action against you for using the material- this could not only damage your reputation as a researcher but also that of the university. Nobody wants to face a lawsuit so it’s vital to take your responsibilities in relation to copyright seriously.

Don’t leave it until submission time.

It’s good practice to check the copyright status of any material you’re including in your thesis as you are writing it. As you may need to write to the copyright owner to request permission to use their material it’s best to give yourself plenty of time; sometimes it can take weeks to receive a response so you should make a start as early as possible. If you leave it until the point when you’re submitting your thesis not only could it delay the deposit, but it could give you more work to do once you’ve finished. Keep a note of any permissions that have been granted- you can find a useful template to keep your permissions in order here.

If you’ve redacted material from your thesis, remember you’ll need to submit both the original examined version of your thesis and the redacted version to RDSS. Once your degree is awarded the scholarly communications team will deposit your thesis in WIRE, but only the redacted version will be made publicly available.  

Support is available

If you’re unsure about whether you need permission to include 3^rd party content in your thesis, then you should get in touch with the scholarly communications team who will be happy to look at the content in question with you and advise on how to proceed.  You can contact them at wire@wlv.ac.uk

The team also runs workshops focusing on copyright and your thesis where we help you to identify material that may require permission as well as going through the redaction process.  

Guidance on preparing your thesis for deposit in WIRE can be found here: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/lib/research/preparing-your-thesis/

Sarah Dar, Scholarly Communications Officer

Photo adapted from the original by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash