As a researcher you will want to photocopy or download material e.g. book chapters, journal articles, information or images from the web etc… to support your research. The material you wish to use may be subject to UK Copyright law, which limits the amount of material that you can legally copy. See Copyright Basics for more information.

The research you produce is also subject to copyright law.

Training: Copyright for Academic Modules (SPR event)

A staff development course, led by the Copyright Administrator focussing on the areas of copyright awareness with respect to academic practice is offered through the Staff Development Office. View details of this training course.

The information below aims to explain how copyright can affect your activities and answer some key questions. If you have any questions please contact the Copyright Administrator .

What can I legally photocopy for research purposes?

You can copy a 'fair' amount for your own private study, research or critical review. Photocopying is restricted to whichever is the greater of:

• Up to 5% or one chapter of a book
• Up to 5% or one article from a single issue of a journal
• Up to 5% or one paper of one set of conference proceedings
• Up to 5% of an anthology or one short story or one poem of not more than 10 pages
• up to 5% or one case of one report of judicial proceedings

Can I incorporate other people’s work into my research or thesis for publication?

As long as you cite the material used so you cannot be accused of plagiarism it is acceptable to incorporate a limited amount of text into published research. For more information on plagiarism and citing see your departmental guidelines.

Use of images, diagrams etc…, unless they are out of copyright, require permission from the rightsholder.

More comprehensive information can be found on the Graduate School webpage. Alternatively see Copyright and your Thesis - Guide for Students.

I’m presenting at a conference. Do I need to worry about copyright?

Yes. The advice above concerning the incorporation of other people’s work into your research applies. In particular make sure you have permission to use images if they are copyrighted.

Can I circulate a paper for a journal club?

No, but you can direct the club members to an electronic version if available.

Is the research I create covered by copyright?

Yes. Where the material has been created by an employee in the course of their employment, the employer is the first owner of copyright in the work unless there is an agreement to the contrary.

When you publish your research, by signing a publisher's licence agreement, usual practice assigns copyright to the publisher. However, there are alternatives, you can ask the publisher to agree to use:

• the Scholarly Publishing and Academic resources Coalition (SPARC) Author Addendum. This is a legal instrument that modifies the publisher's agreement and allows you to keep key rights to your articles.
• the JISC/SURF model agreement 'Licence to Publish', which aims to provide a balance of rights and interests between publishers and authors. SURF have also produced a short video on this subject, which you may find of interest.

You can publish in an open access (OA) journal, or in a hybrid journal, one that contains open access articles. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) can help you find a suitable OA or hybrid journal to publish in.

The Leicester Research Archive (LRA) is another place where you may wish to deposit your research output to make it freely available to all. Putting your research output into LRA does not stop you using it elsewhere, you retain control over your work and can publish it or use it in teaching.

Your work may have been published in a journal, or may be awaiting publication, and you may therefore have assigned some rights to a third party. This need not preclude its inclusion in Leicester Research Archive. Some publishers will allow authors to archive their work in repositories such as this one.

The Library is aware of such concerns, and will investigate thoroughly before archiving anything. If the publisher will not allow us to put the work into Leicester Research Archive, or if putting it in will jeopardise your publishing it, then we will not archive it. If you are worried that archiving a particular piece of work will stop you from publishing that work in the future, please ask us to investigate for you.

For more information see the LRA section or read about author rights[although please ignore any reference to US law].

Further assistance

Please contact us if you need further assistance.