LibGuide from the University of Cambridge covering the basics of copyright for researchers
This resource is licenced under a CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence by Claire Sewell, the Office of Scholarly Communication, Cambridge University Libraries.
Copyright is an automatic legal right which is part of a larger bundle known as Intellectual Property Rights. These aim to protect the creators of a work in a number of ways including preventing plagiarism and the loss of revenue. Copyright covers a range of material from the written word to artistic works and is automatically assigned when the following conditions have been met:
Copyright protects literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, film, broadcast works and sound recordings. In the UK, copyright law is based on the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988) and its 2014 reforms. These reforms were introduced in response to the Hargreaves Review which aimed to update copyright law to make it better suited to the technology based educational environment of the 21st century. Copyright means different things in different library contexts. To many librarians the first thing that comes to mind when hearing the term is how much their users are allowed to photocopy or upload to a VLE. Whilst this is an important aspect of ensuring copyright compliance, scholarly communication considers different aspects such as the signing of publishing agreements which transfer the ownership of copyright in a work, how to clear the rights to use material in new research and how outputs are licensed for reuse.
At times, copyright may seem like more trouble than it’s worth. It can be complicated, time-consuming and hard to explain to researchers who just want to work on their projects. So why do we need copyright in scholarly communication?
Perhaps the most important reason is that it helps the creator of a work to be rewarded for their efforts. As we have seen in previous modules, academic authors do not (often) get well-paid for their outputs and actually do a great deal of the production work for research themselves. Having the protection of copyright in place means that creators will receive recognition and reward for their efforts. It also crucially helps to stop others exploiting the effort of the creator by claiming the work as their own. This protection is crucial to researchers who are often trying to build reputations and careers on the basis of their outputs.
Although it can appear to be a barrier to some, copyright is actually an important part of the knowledge creation cycle. By providing guidance on what can be used (and what can't), it helps to set out a roadmap for researchers and others.In this way, it helps to advance the general body of knowledge through new innovations and research.
Copyrights are broadly divided into two types: economic and moral rights.
It is important that researchers understand this distinction as it can impact what they are allowed to do with their work at a later date, especially after signing publication agreements for their work.
