Copyright for publishing
Copyright is an inherent feature of publishing, from negotiating licence agreements to ensuring appropriate clearances are in place for any included third-party material, such as quotations, figures and images.
Copyright ownership
The University's Intellectual Property (IP) Statute provides that students retain the IP – including copyright – created during their studies in most circumstances. This includes research data they have created and research outputs, such as theses.
Under the University's Intellectual Property Statute, staff members retain copyright in their research outputs such as books, journal articles, conference papers and artistic works. The University has a non-exclusive licence to reuse non-publishable material, such as research data. Copyright in teaching materials is attained by the University.
Publishing agreements
Agreement types
Publishers generally require either assignment of all copyright or a licence to certain rights to proceed with publishing.
Publishing agreements can be broadly categorised as shown in the following table. Assignment of copyright and exclusive licences are similar in that the author retains very limited rights to the work. Conversely, open licences (such as Creative Commons) are effectively a type of non-exclusive licence but offered to everyone. An open licence may also be combined with one of the other agreement types.
Assignment | Exclusive licence | Non-exclusive licence | Open licence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Description | Transfers copyright to a new owner. | Grants rights solely to another party. | The same rights can be granted to multiple parties. | Blanket grant of rights to everyone. |
Copyright owner | Publisher | Author | Author | Usually the author. |
Can you use your own work without permission? | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Can others use your work without permission? | No | No | Yes, within limits. | Yes, within limits. |
Authority to grant permission | Publisher | Publisher | Author | Usually the author. |
Publishing tips
Key considerations for authors in relation to publishing include the following:
- Open access ensures wider distribution as researchers and institutions don’t have to pay to read or use the work.
- The Research Authorship and Outputs Policy encourages publishing in an open access journal and requires the deposit of accepted manuscripts in the University repository (OPAL).
Refer to the Open Access Publishing guide for more information.
- The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) can filter out titles with APC fees.
- The University’s Read & Publish Agreements enable La Trobe authors to avoid APC fees with certain publishers as they are effectively waived by Library subscription fees.
- ARC and NHMRC policies mandate immediate open access. Refer to the Open Access Publishing guide for more information.
- Not retaining the rights may mean you have to go back to the publisher for permission to reuse or quote from your own work. Publishing agreements should at least include a licence back to the author in these circumstances.
- Research funder policies may require authors to retain certain rights. Refer to the Open Access Publishing guide for more information.
- Where an agreement is required on submission, all rights should revert back to the author if the article is rejected.
- For works of joint authorship, formally designate the corresponding author and their rights and responsibilities, such as approving licence agreements, to avoid any future uncertainties.
- The Research Authorship and Outputs Policy outlines authorship agreement requirements.
Copyright clearances for publications
It is good practice to assess the potential for copyright clearance for each third-party material before including it in a project. Many publishers won’t accept a manuscript containing third-party material that is not suitably cleared. Material from your own publications may also require clearance if it is co-authored or it was assigned or exclusively licensed to a publisher through a publishing agreement.
For graduate research students, theses are submitted to the Open @ La Trobe (OPAL) institutional repository as part of the final thesis lodgement process. Copyright clearances are required for all third-party materials before a thesis can be published online, including for any figures, images and block quotations sourced from elsewhere. The Copyright Clearance Form should be completed and submitted with the thesis for this purpose. Alternatively, a redacted version of the thesis may be submitted.
The Copyright Clearance Form is also useful for tracking clearances for other publications and projects.
The following outlines the key copyright clearance methods.
Copyright durations can be broadly summarised as follows. However, there are numerous exceptions depending on the type of material and other factors, such as the publication date.
| Material type | Copyright duration |
|---|---|
| Text, images and music compositions | Life of the author + 70 years |
| Sound and video recordings | Date made + 70 years |
| Government material | Date made + 50 years |
In Australia, copyright has also expired for photographs made before 1955.
For specific copyright durations by material type, refer to the Attorney General’s Department's Duration of Copyright table.
Open access materials are those in the public domain (e.g. copyright expired) or have been released under a Creative Commons (CC) or other open licence that permits some degree of use without purchase or permission.
Check the key terms on open access licences to ensure that all conditions are met for the licence to apply. For instance, all CC licences mandate attribution (BY).
Generally, no copyright applies to AI-generated material that has no human authorship. AI-generated sound and film recordings do attain copyright, but the protection doesn’t extend to any underlying AI content in the recording, such as dialogue or a music composition.
Some AI services still place limits on how you can reuse their outputs through their terms of use. In addition, AI outputs that recreate part of an existing work may infringe copyright.
Consider referencing or citing a resource if it isn’t critical to include a reproduction or excerpt. For online materials, linking or embedding content means the source website is serving up the material rather than having to reproduce it locally. Embedding should only be employed if the third-party site expressly permits it. YouTube, for example, provides specific HTML embed code to enable videos to be served elsewhere.
Further, the content should only be linked or embedded from an official source or channel to avoid liability for authorisation infringement as well as reputational risk. For example, links to videos on the official National Geographic YouTube channel would be acceptable, but links to unofficial sources that have no clear affiliation with the rightsholder should be omitted. Official YouTube channels can usually be identified through the tick symbol after the account name.
Obtaining permission is perhaps the most reliable method of copyright clearance.
For most journal articles, as well as many textbooks, permissions can be requested through the Copyright Clearance Center's (CCC) Rightslink Marketplace. Online journal articles often have a rights or permissions tab near the heading that will link through to Rightslink and include the correct citation.
Alternatively, permissions may need to be obtained from rightsholder(s) directly. The copyright (©) notice should identify the primary rightsholder, but if it's not clear, try the publisher or author first. Publishers often have a permissions and licensing contact point on their website.
While some rightsholders might require a more formal request including full details of the intended publication, the wording below should be sufficient for email requests in most circumstances:
Can you kindly grant permission for a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to copy and communicate the following item for the purpose of publishing a thesis/article in the La Trobe University institutional repository / journal title / textbook / website.
- [citation and/or link to item]
- [actual text, page numbers or screenshot of extract used.]
The work will be cited and referenced in line with University referencing guides.
Performers hold certain rights in sound recordings and audiovisual (film) recordings of their performances, including the right to grant or refuse consent to the reproduction and communication of a performance (since 1989); co-ownership of copyright in a sound recording of a performance (2005); and moral rights (2007). The rights to control the use of a performance generally last for 50 years for sound recordings and 20 years for audiovisual recordings.
Performances include dramatic, literary, musical and variety acts, as well as interviews and speeches.
To avoid any uncertainty, it’s good practice to obtain releases from performers when making a recording. Alternatively, permission may be required from performers in relation to third-party recordings or recordings that don’t have suitable releases in place.
The University has a template Consent Form that can be used for this purpose.
ICIP protocols guide the use of Indigenous cultural material, with a particular emphasis on early and ongoing engagement and consent from the relevant communities. ICIP covers a range of items that may not be protected under copyright or other intellectual property frameworks.
The Research Authorship and Outputs Policy requires researchers to observe the AIATSIS Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research, including Indigenous knowledge and intellectual property arrangements. ICIP considerations are also a requirement under Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) open access policies.
There must be sufficient commentary or analysis about the third-party material for the fair dealing for criticism or review to apply, rather than the material being included simply to illustrate a point or for comparison.
The following fairness factors must be assessed, in aggregate:
- purpose of the copying (e.g. criticism or review)
- the nature of the work
- commercial availability of the work
- the effect of copying on the market for the work
- amount and substantiality of the part used.
There is often significant uncertainty in relying on this exception due to the qualitative nature of the criteria.
An item might be considered an orphan work if the rightsholder genuinely cannot be identified or located to obtain permission or to determine its copyright status. Some publishers may be willing to reproduce an orphan work where the risk is acceptable.
Contact the Copyright Advisor for assistance with clearing orphan works.
Choosing an open access licence
Use the Creative Commons License Chooser tool for guidance on selecting the most appropriate CC license for your work.
Research funders and publishers may only permit certain types of open access licences. The Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) generally mandate CC BY, for example.
Contact us
If you require further information about copyright, please get in touch.
Some sections adapted from Copyright at Adelaide University, with permission.