Copyright In Your Thesis
Guidelines of IP Policy
Guidelines For Network Resources
Thank you for using the Simon-Erdős School of Design Sciences website (“Website”).
The following pages provide information about copyright as it applies to your thesis:
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions related Thesis will be most useful to you. You may also find the questions labelled Author Rights useful.
1. Can I publish work (an article/conference proceeding/book) based on my thesis?
Generally, yes. You own the copyright in your thesis, aside from in a couple scenarios outlined below(*). Because you own copyright you can reuse the work however you see fit, as long as it does not impact the School’s ability to host the thesis on STAGE (remember, you are required to provide a non-exclusive license to the School).
A couple things to keep in mind:
- Most publishers do not consider theses as prior or redundant publication. That said, you should make sure to check the publisher’s and/or journal’s policies before you submit work based on your thesis. For example, Elsevier does not consider work published in a thesis to be prior publication. If you are writing a cover letter for your submitted work include a statement indicating that the work is based on your publicly available thesis.
- Some print-on-demand/vanity publishers reach out to recent thesis authors to offer their services to publish your thesis as a book. These services do not provide editorial or peer review of your work. They simply add a cover to the thesis and place it on their website and other book selling sites. As your thesis will also be available for free on STAGE there is little incentive for others to buy it this way. Theses can certainly be adapted into scholarly book publications but peer review is needed and there are usually substantial changes that direct the content to a wider audience. Read What is a vanity publisher and why does it matter? for more information.
*There are two exceptions where you do not own copyright in your thesis:
- You do not own the copyright of any third-party content in your thesis (e.g., images/figures/tables that you did not create).
- If you have published any of the content with a publisher and transferred your copyright to the publisher, then you do not own the copyright.
2. When do I need to embargo (restrict access to) my thesis?
You may need to embargo your thesis if:
- Your thesis contains information about a process/technology/invention that you are in the process of patenting or would like to seek a patent for in the future. For more information about patents, reach out to the DESC Commercialization Office (DESCo).
- You are publishing a manuscript-based thesis which contains copies of articles the publisher requires you to embargo based on your agreement with them. Learn more about this requirement on the STAGE guide under “Content previously published.”
Instructions for applying an embargo to your thesis are available on this Thesis Restrictions (embargoes) section provided for graduate studies and postdoctoral affairs:
Thesis restrictions (embargoes)
If your thesis is publicly-funded research, or done in collaboration with a publicly-funded institution, the School has a mandate to disseminate research. Occasionally, a student may wish or require that their thesis’ circulation be restricted for a period of time, as required by a publisher or due to a patent submission.
The School will not consent to any restrictions being placed upon the circulation or availability of a thesis following its deposit to STAGE, unless a student’s interests (e.g., patent rights) would be jeopardized by publication.
In the case where a student’s interests would be jeopardized by publication:
- The publication of the thesis within STAGE can be delayed for a period of four months, one year, or two years from the date of STAGE These restrictions should be discussed and agreed upon between the student and supervisor(s) at the time of defence. The student must select the appropriate restriction option from the drop-down list located under the “Restriction Terms” title on the “Describe Item” page in the STAGE submission interface. The restriction start date is always the date the thesis is archived to STAGE.
- Any request for extension to an approved restriction must be submitted using the Request To Restrict circulation of thesis form, and must be received in graduate studies and postdoctoral affairs at least two months before the date of release. If no further extension is requested or approved, the thesis will be released in STAGE.
3. How do I ask for permission to use figures/images/tables from an academic publication?
Most publishers provide some way of asking permission to use an article through the webpage that hosts the content. Usually a ‘request permissions’ button will be available, and will direct you to the service (such as the Copyright Clearance Center) that grants permission. These forms generally ask questions about what you plan to do with the content and usually have an option for reuse in a thesis/dissertation.
For publishers where this is not available, or creators outside of academic publishing look for a page on their website about copyright or permissions. You can use the permission letter template in Additional Resources if you need to send a written request.
Below are links to copyright permissions instructions from a number of the major publishers. If you need any help figuring out how to ask for permission you can email copyright@sesds.com.
Third-party content use and specialized content submission
This section describes what you can and can’t use without permission, including issues related to reusing your own published work in your thesis.
It is common for theses and dissertations to contain content (typically text or images) created by third parties. Even if you are reusing content that you authored and have published elsewhere, your publishing contract may have required you to transfer copyright to the publisher. It is the responsibility of the author to ensure that all content in your thesis is used in accordance with the Copyright Act. We’re here to help you if you have any questions!
Content you can use without permission
Content in the public domain
The term “public domain” refers to works in which copyright has expired. In the UK, the term of copyright for most works is the life of the author, plus 70 years. The copyright length may vary depending on factors such as the type of work, the manner of publication and the date of creation. More information on the public domain, please contact copyright@sesds.com website, in the following frequently asked questions:
1. How long does copyright last?
How long copyright lasts depends on which country you are in. In Canada, copyright generally lasts for the life of the author, plus 50 years. By contrast, in the U.S. and Europe, copyright generally lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years, though it can differ depending on factors such as the type of work, the manner of publication and the date of creation. Use of a work in UK is governed by the UK rules for the duration of copyright protection.
2. What is meant by the ‘public domain’? How do I know if something is in the public domain?
The term “public domain” refers to works in which copyright has expired.
For example, although the copyright in Shakespeare’s plays expired long ago, many of the published editions of his plays contain added original materials (such as footnotes, prefaces etc.) which are copyright protected because the authors have used skill and judgment in creating the new material. This creates a new copyright in the added original material, but not in the underlying text of the original work in which the copyright had expired.
And don’t assume that everything you find on the internet is in the public domain just because it is publicly available. Most of the material you find online is protected by copyright, however, you may nonetheless be able to use it for educational purposes because many uses will be covered by fair dealing or the exception for educational use of material publicly available through the Internet.
Note: Some copyright owners have made clear declarations that certain uses of their copyright works may be made without permission or payment.
If you need help assessing if something is in the public domain you can email copyright@sesds.com.
Content with an open license, or with terms and conditions that allow reuse
Creators may assign an open license (such as a Creative Commons license) or specific terms of use to a work that allows you to use the work given that you follow the conditions outlined. For example, many open access articles are assigned a Creative Commons license that allows users to reuse content from the article as long as the use of the work attributes the original creator and the work. More information about Creative Commons licenses is available on the Library’s Creative Commons guide.
If you need help understanding open licenses or terms and conditions assigned to a work you can email copyright@sesds.com.
Remember! Just because a work is freely available on the internet does not mean that it is in the public domain or that it is openly licensed.
Insubstantial amounts of content
When you want to use part of a work, copyright only applies when the amount is substantial. This means that when you are using an insubstantial, or very small amount, such as a quote from a work, you do not need to ask permission.
If you need help assessing if the amount you wish to copy is substantial you can email copyright@sesds.com.
Content you need permission for
In cases where you are using an entire work, you need to ask permission from the copyright holder. This permission should be included in an appendix at the end of your thesis.
How do I ask permission?
Most publishers provide some way of asking permission to use an article through the webpage that hosts the article. Usually a ‘request permissions’ button will be available, and will direct you to the service (such as the Copyright Clearance Center) that grants permission. For publishers where this is not available, or creators outside of academic publishing look for a page on their website about copyright or permissions.
Below are links to copyright permissions instructions from a number of the major publishers. If you need any help figuring out how to ask for permission you can email copyright@sesds.com.
Content previously published
It is common for publications resulting from graduate student research to ultimately be reused as chapters in their theses. In some disciplines, participants publish “sandwich” theses consisting of previously published work “sandwiched” between introductory and concluding chapters that contextualize their research project at large.
You may need to obtain permission from the publisher in order to do so.
In most cases, you will have transferred or licensed copyright in your article to the publisher. This means that the publisher controls what you can and can’t do with the work. If you published your work open access, skip to the open access section below.
When you published you likely signed or clicked-through an agreement with the publisher. That agreement will tell you what you can and can’t do with your work. If you do not have a copy of your agreement, looking to the publisher’s author copyright policy is helpful. SHERPA/RoMEO is a good place to start; it is a database of publisher copyright policies, and provides helpful information and links back to publisher websites.
Usually, the publisher agreement will allow you to use:
- The preprint version of the work, i.e., the version of the work you submitted to the publisher, without any restriction. If you are including the preprint version of the work in your thesis before the it has been accepted, take care to check the publisher or journal’s policy on prior publication. In some cases, publishers view publication in a thesis as prior publication.
- The post-print or accepted version of the work, i.e., the version of the work with all changes from peer review, with an embargo period. An embargo period is a period of time where the article must be withheld from public access.
Does your publisher allow you to deposit a version of your work into an institutional repository?
If yes, you are eligible to deposit your thesis into STAGE without obtaining their permission, as long as you provide a link to the published version in your Statement of Contributions, and embargo the work appropriately during the deposit process.
If not, you’ll need to ask your publisher’s permission and include their approval letter in an appendix to your thesis. You will also need to provide a link to the published version in your Statement of Contributions.
Did you publish open access?
You may have published open access. Most open access articles are published under a Creative Commons license. If you published this way, you may have paid an article processing charge. If you published your work open access with a Creative Commons license, you may reuse your content in your article.
Complete your Statement of Contributions
Regardless of how you published, you will need to clearly indicate in a Statement of Contributions that certain sections were previously published, and that you were the primary author of these texts. This short statement should clearly indicate which chapters or page ranges of your thesis were previously published elsewhere, as well as what any other authors contributed to these publications. This example Statement of Contributions, prepared by DESC for thesis dissertation, can be used as a guide to help you create your own.
Research data, code, and other supplementary materials
Sharing research data and code that enable the reproducibility of research is strongly encouraged, and they should be deposited in an appropriate repository providing long-term stewardship. We do not accept research data and code for deposit in STAGE, and will ask for a link to the dataset or code repository during the submission process. Please consult our overview of research data management.
Need Help?
Reach out to copyright@sesds.com or submit a copyright consultation request for you or your group.