This handy PDF outlines some different methods of redacting content from theses
This resource is licenced under a CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence by Claire Sewell, the Office of Scholarly Communication, Cambridge University Libraries.
An area where this causes frequent problems is the use of images in works. There are many reasons why researchers want to use images in their work, especially in disciplines such as the arts where they are an integral part of the academic argument. As wth other third party materials, images are protected by copyright and researchers will need to make sure that they have the appropriate permission to use them. When seeking permission they need to think carefully about their reasons for using a certain image:
If researchers are unsure they should always seek advice and/or permission before using an image.
Where is it not possible to get permission to use an image, researchers may need to redact it from the final published version. This most often happens when an academic work such as a thesis is made available online and is therefore no longer under an educational exception. To redact images from work researchers should replace it with a text box of roughly the same size, enter some text describing the redacted image or a reference and explain that it has been removed for copyright reasons. This will help to preserve the integrity of the document whilst still providing the information that readers need to track down the image if necessary.
There are many sites available which offer high quality, free and openly licensed general images for use in resources like presentations and a few of these are highlighted below. As with any image you should check the individual license carefully before using it.
