COPYRIGHT, OPEN ACCESS AND YOUR THESIS · 2020. 10. 7. · You can also check the publisher’s policies on copyright and self- archiving from the Sherpa Romeo website (. Publishers

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COPYRIGHT,OPENACCESSAND YOUR THESISA guide for research students

Graduate School in collaborationwith Information Services

CONTENTS

Introduction 1Copyright, Open Access and your thesis 3Copyright and intellectual property rights for students 3Making your thesis available to readers 3What is Open Access? 3Advantages to making your thesis available in KAR 4How putting your thesis in KAR affects your copyright 4Using Creative Commons Licences for your own work 5What you need to be aware of when making your thesis Open Access 7What about ‘third party’ content in your thesis? 7How do you get permissions for copyright material? 8Using Open Access sources 9Using works licenced under Creative Commons 11If you cannot get permission 11How to redact material from a thesis 12Using your own published work in your thesis 12Thesis by publication 14How to submit your thesis into KAR 15What happens next? 16Tips to improve accessibility 16Where to go for more help 17

1www.kent.ac.uk/graduateschool

INTRODUCTION

If you are a researchstudent, it’s important tounderstand why copyrightmatters. When youundertake originalresearch, you willinevitably use the ideasand work of other peopleand organisations in yourthesis or published article.You need to know whatrights apply to your ownwork, and how you wantothers to share and re-usethe content you create.

This guide will help you understand:• how copyright protects the workyou produce

• how you can use other people’swork without infringing copyright

• when you might need copyrightpermission and how to obtain this

• how to submit your thesis to theKent Academic Repository viaMoodle.

You need to think about copyrightissues from the outset of yourresearch and before you startcollecting data and carrying outfieldwork. Copyright issues alsooverlap with wider ethical issues, suchas how you use the data you collectfrom other people and organisations,and how you get their consent to usetheir names and ideas.

To use the data you collect frompeople you need to be clear aboutwhat you want to do with theinformation they give you. Forexample, if you take photos ofpeople who are clearly identifiable,you should still get their permissionif you wish to include the photos inyour thesis, even though you own thecopyright to the photos. In manydisciplines, there are issuesof confidentiality and you must keepthe data you collect anonymous.If other people supply you with dataor information (such as photographs),you need to establish who owns thecopyright and get their permissionto re-publish it in your thesis.

2 www.kent.ac.uk/graduateschool


COPYRIGHT, OPEN ACCESSAND YOUR THESIS

Copyright and intellectualproperty rights forstudentsNormally, you own the copyright inyour thesis as a ‘scholarly work’. Thismeans that you own the rightsto publish and distribute it, unlessyou have agreed to transfer or assigncopyright to a third party(for example a sponsor).

Sometimes copyright is assigned touniversities, or held jointly between auniversity and the people who studyor work there. At the University ofKent, you usually retain copyright inyour work unless there has beensignificant input from University staff.If you are in any doubt about this,you should speak to yoursupervisor/s or contact KentInnovation and Enterprise.

Kent Innovation and Enterprise:www.kent.ac.uk/enterprise

Making your thesisavailable to readersUnder University regulations, youmust deposit your final thesis in theKent Academic Repository (KAR). KAR is Kent’s Open Accessinstitutional archive, through whichyour thesis is publicly available, anddownloadable. When you deposityour thesis in KAR, a non-exclusivelicence grants the universitypermission to make your thesisavailable online on an open accessbasis. You will retain ownership ofthe copyright of your work, and youcan ask for access to be restrictedfor a period of time.

Kent Academic Repository:http://kar.kent.ac.uk

What is Open Access?Open Access refers to onlinematerial that is free at the point ofaccess so anyone can read it withoutneeding to pay.

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COPYRIGHT, OPEN ACCESSAND YOUR THESIS (CONT)

Open Access material allowsreaders to use and share informationeasily; it has clear re-use rightswhich tell others what they areallowed to do with it. Making yourresearch Open Access increases thepotential audience for your research,while still allowing you to retain rightsover your work.

Advantages to making yourthesis available in KARThere are clear benefits:• It increases the visibility and reachof your research. Your thesis willappear prominently in searchengine results and authoritativeonline sources. These include theBritish Library’s EThOS service(http://ethos.bl.uk) and DART-Europe E-theses Portal (www.dart-europe.eu). Studies suggest thatyour research is more likely to beread and cited if it is Open Access

• It provides a stable, long-termURL you can use to promote yourwork. You can refer potentialcollaborators, employers andgrant providers to your research,and track any citations

• It allows long-term preservation ofyour research and ensures it isaccessible

• It protects you against plagiarismas a reference copy is publiclyavailable

• You can see how often your thesisis downloaded

• You satisfy the Open Accessrequirements of funding bodies,such as RCUK.

How putting your thesis inKAR affects your copyrightAnyone who accesses your thesisvia KAR has certain rights to re-usematerial from it for the purposes ofnon-commercial research or privatestudy. They would need to provide afull citation for your thesis, and not re-use the material in a way that maybreach copyright or other intellectualproperty rights. You may decide toprovide users with broader rights tore-use your work in the interests offurthering research.


Using Creative CommonsLicences for your own workCreative Commons is aninternationally recognised way oflicensing material to encouragesharing and re-use, while protectingthe rights of the creators of work, byreserving only some of the rightsprovided by copyright law andmaking the creators intentions clear.For example, under a CreativeCommons Attribution Non-Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) licence the creator indicates

their consent for the work (eg animage, a video, or a piece of text) tobe re-distributed in any format (onlineor in print) so long as the reuse is notfor commercial purposes, the work isused unchanged as a whole andauthorship of the original work iscredited. Creative Commons licensesare in contrast to the ‘all rightsreserved’ position of copyright, whichis the default position if no licence isspecified. ‘All rights reserved’ restrictsall potential uses of the work undercopyright law.

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You may wish to use a CreativeCommons licence in relation to yourthesis to indicate that you are happyfor others to use it. The licence youchoose will remove any doubts abouthow others can use your work. Forinstance, Creative CommonsAttribution (CC-BY) allows any use aslong as credit is given. This meansthat commercial companies can useyour work to help develop theirproducts. You will not receive afinancial reward but you will becredited and the commercialdeveloper will be more able to use

your contribution. This will help raiseyour academic profile and may leadto other collaborative partnerships.On the other hand, CreativeCommons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC) means thatthe company will have to get in touchto use your work. This may put themoff but may also allow you moreinput to the development process.

You can find out more about thelicences atwww.kent.ac.uk/library/research/open-access/copyright.html


What you need to be awareof when making yourthesis Open AccessWhen you make your thesis availablein KAR, the full text of your thesis willbe available over the internet.

Depositing your thesis in KAR is notthe same as publishing it, and yourthesis will still be ‘prior publication’.Most publishers allow you to makeyour thesis available online in thisway, so it is unlikely to affect yourability to publish your research in thefuture, through academic journals, oras a monograph.

But some publishers take a stricterview of what constitutes publication.If you agree to publish your thesiscontent within another publication,a publisher may ask you to restrictpublic access to your thesis fora defined period. You can use anembargo in KAR if a publisher asksyou to do this.

What about ‘third party’content in your thesis?You may want to include third partycontent in your thesis. This iscopyright-protected material createdby others, and might include:• quotations or data from othersources

• images, charts or graphs.

You may need permission to usesubstantial amounts of this content inyour thesis and in any subsequentpublications, unless there is a clearstatement on the work saying it can bere-used. You will need to apply anelement of judgment over this, anddecide whether your use of third partycontent without permission falls underan exception to UK copyright law andwhether it qualifies as ‘fair dealing’. Ifthe content falls under an exception,you may decide it is ‘fair’ to use it.

For example, you might want to use areproduction of a single screenshotfrom a large website, or the use of alow-resolution version of an image forthe purposes of quotation, criticismand review.

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You will need to make your decisionto use third party content on a case-by-case basis. If you decide it is notappropriate or necessary to getpermission, and wish to rely on acopyright exception, then you maywant to seek further advice: get intouch with one of the contacts listedat the end of this guide.

You can find more information atwww.kent.ac.uk/copyright and fromthe CopyrightUser website:http://copyrightuser.org/topics/quotation

How do you getpermissions for copyrightmaterial?To get permission to use copyrightmaterial, you need to identify whoowns the work. This often meansidentifying the author, photographeror publisher.

• Many websites now have a sectionabout copyright (or terms andconditions of use) for web-basedmaterial

• To get permissions for publishedbooks and journals content, youmay find contact details from PLSClear (www.plsclear.com). Youneed to think about how you willuse the material. If you are askedto pay to use it, this may not beappropriate for the types of useyou are making of the material

• You need to be exact about thematerial you wish to use. Includepage numbers where possible.Let the rights owner know thatyour thesis will be available in KAR

• If the works you wish to use havebeen made available on an openaccess basis or, if they carry aCreative Commons licence, thenyou may not need to apply forspecial permission.

It takes time to get copyrightpermission from individual copyrightholders. Some may be slow torespond, or never respond to yourrequest. Do not assume that, if arights owner does not respond, youcan use their work.



Allow enough time to getpermission: it is always better toask for permission early on.Permissions may carry a cost,particularly if you want to publishthe thesis at a later stage.

For more help and advice inestablishing who owns the copyrightof a work and securing copyrightpermissions, [email protected]

Using Open AccesssourcesAn increasing number of educationalresources are available on an ‘open’basis. This means that you can usethem in your work without permissionbut you must check the terms, orlicence, under which the materialsare made available. If you use thework, you must always properlyattribute it to the creator of the workand copyright owner.

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You must use a full reference, evenif the work is in the public domainand free from any copyrightprotection because copyright hasexpired or because the owner hasgiven up any rights.

Using works licencedunder Creative CommonsIf you wish to use work licensedunder Creative Commons in yourthesis, you must credit the originalauthor and check you are complyingwith all the conditions of the licence.You can find out more about thelicences at www.kent.ac.uk/library/research/open-access/copyright.htmlwhere there is an explanation of themeanings of the various CreativeCommons terms.

You can search for material licensedunder different types of CreativeCommons licenses athttp://search.creativecommons.org

If you cannot getpermissionYou must always take reasonablesteps to obtain permission. If youcannot gain permission to includematerial protected by copyright inyour thesis, and the use is notcovered by ‘fair dealing’ exceptions,you will need to submit two electronicversions to KAR:

1 A full and final version of yourthesis, which will not be publiclyavailable

2 An amended version from whichyou have removed, or ‘redacted’third party copyright material. Thisamended version will be madepublicly available.

You may still be able to make the fulland unamended version of yourthesis publicly available in KAR.

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If you have made reasonable effortsto contact the copyright owner, andhave discussed the risks of includingany third party content with theCopyright Support Service([email protected]), you cansubmit your thesis to KAR and makeuse of our takedown policy ifcontacted by copyright holders.In the event of notice from acopyright holder, the takedown policyapplies and removes access to anyallegedly infringing content in KARwhile the matter is investigated.

How to redact materialfrom a thesisRedaction means removinginformation from your thesis that youdo not wish to make publiclyavailable. You can block outindividual sentences or paragraphsor remove images or sections fromone copy of your thesis before youmake it available in KAR.

To redact images or large sections,delete them and replace with thewords [INFORMATION REDACTED]or [IMAGE REDACTED].

Do not delete the reference to thecontent you have removed.

To redact smaller sections placeblack rectangles over words orsentences by drawing long squaresover the removed text areas andcolouring them solid black. Deletethe text underneath the blacksquares. For example:

Sentence without words redacted:the black cat sat on the mat

Sentence with words redacted:the cat sat on the

Using your own publishedwork in your thesisYou may want to include your ownwork, such as a published article, inyour thesis. If you are submitting athesis by publication, it will includearticles that you have alreadypublished in journals or books.Although the material is your ownwork, there are things you need to beaware of through the publicationprocess.


If you plan to use your ownpublished work in your thesis,discuss this with your publisher assoon as the work is accepted forpublication. You can also check the publisher’spolicies on copyright and self-archiving from the Sherpa Romeowebsite (www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo).

Publishers will often request that youtransfer copyright, or assign anexclusive right to publish, in the formof a Copyright Transfer Agreement orContributor’s agreement. This affectswhether and how you are allowed toreproduce or make your workavailable.

While most publishers allow you toretain the rights to distribute the finalversion of your published workfollowing peer-review, there can beconditions on this re-use.

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Thesis by publicationA thesis by publication will includethree main parts:1 The narrative which is new writingcreated specifically for the PhD

2 A bibliographic list of thepublications contributing to theaward

3 Copies of the publicationsthemselves

You should upload the narrative andthe bibliographic list to KAR viaMoodle but record the publicationsthemselves on KAR separately asworks in their own right. This willprovide a KAR URL for each of yourpublications which should be addedto the relevant entry in yourbibliography. Where possible, youshould make a version of the full textof the work available in KAR.


For more information aboutdepositing your works on KAR andwhich versions of your work you canuse see the KAR website(www.kent.ac.uk/library/research/kar).

How to submit your thesisinto KARAfter you have completed your vivaexamination and made any revisionsrequested by your examiners, youneed to submit your thesis via yourSchool’s Moodle page. You will get aletter from your School with the link tothe Moodle module you use toupload your thesis to KAR.

You will need to decide from thefollowing options:1 Do you need to submit anamended, redacted version of yourthesis as well as the full version?See ‘How to redact material fromyour thesis section’ above

2 Do you wish to apply an embargoand restrict public access to yourthesis for a one year or three yearperiod while you complete orpursue a publishing contract? See‘What you need to be aware ofwhen making your thesis OpenAccess’ section above

3 Does your thesis contain extensivematerial of a sensitive orconfidential nature? You maydecide it cannot be publiclyavailable, and you should discussyour decision with yoursupervisor/s and Director ofGraduate Studies. If agreed,you will need to download a formfrom the Moodle thesis depositmodule and obtain the necessarysignatures. If you are unableto reach agreement with yoursupervisor/s or Director ofGraduate Studies this will needto be raised with the FacultyAssociate Dean (GraduateStudies).

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What happens next?Once you have added the detailsabout your thesis to the Moodlemodule, made your choices anduploaded the full text, select the‘Submit to School Administrator’button. Your School’s Administratorwill check the details and transferyour thesis to KAR.

Please [email protected] if:• your thesis has not appeared inKAR within 5 working days

• you have any accompanying filesto upload; or

• you wish to change an embargo.

Tips to improveaccessibilityMaximise your audience by makingyour document as accessible aspossible. The following steps willhelp to ensure that people can readyour work and benefit from yourresearch:• Ensure text can be selected(highlighted and added toclipboard) for use with text tospeech tools

• Use heading styles to create cleardocument structure

• Use Plain English• Use meaningful hyperlinks• Keep the layout simple and clear –minimum font size 12, left-aligned,pages numbered (whereappropriate)

• Use recognised rather than‘unofficial’ formatting when makinglists (eg standard formatting bulletpoints and numbered lists ratherthan spaces, dashes)

• Use non-serif fonts (eg Helvetica,Arial)

• Make sure key pictures, charts,and diagrams have alternative textdescriptions where appropriate

• Give preference to multimedia thathas captions, transcripts and/oraudio descriptions

• Use the Microsoft OfficeAccessibility Checker

• When exporting documents toPDF follow accessible PDFguidance.

You can find further information atwww.kent.ac.uk/studentsupport/accessibility/accessible-resources.html


Where to go for more helpIf you need more advice on thecopyright or licensing implications ofyour postgraduate research, pleasecontact [email protected] [email protected] can help with your questionsor arrange further support.

This work ‘University of KentCopyright, Open Access and yourthesis – a guide for research students

(2018)’ is a derivative of ‘Copyrightand your thesis: a guide for researchstudents’ which is © 2016 LSE usedunder a Creative Commons,Attribution, Non-Commercial,Sharealike 4.0 licence. University ofKent Copyright, Open Access andyour thesis – a guide for researchstudents (2018) is licensed underCreative Commons, Attribution, Non-Commercial, Sharealike 4.0 licence.© 2018 University of Kent.

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The Graduate SchoolCornwallis East, University of KentCanterbury, Kent CT2 7NF

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COPYRIGHT, OPEN ACCESS AND YOUR THESIS · 2020. 10. 7. · You can also check the publisher’s policies on copyright and self- archiving from the Sherpa Romeo website (. Publishers