Guide to Copyright and the Research Repository - Research

Who owns Copyright?

Originally, the creator or author of a work is the owner of Copyright in that work. This means that they can perform, or licence another to perform the acts listed above. Exceptions occur if the work was created in the course of employment, in which case Copyright usually belongs to the Employer. Also, if the author signed a contract in return for funding or publication, then the Copyright may also belong to the funder or publisher.

On the other hand, if authors or researchers already have written permission to include material on an Open Access Archive from the Copyright owner then the material can be uploaded. Any extra documentation, such as written permissions should be included with the main work as an electronic file, but not made open access. The Repository staff have an obligation to maintain a diligence file in case of query and, again, they can offer help with the wording needed in permissions of this kind.

Journal articles on the repository

Most journal publishers require that authors transfer Copyright to them to at least some extent although they usually allow self-archiving on institutional research repositories. The JISC service Sherpa Romeo (http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo ) has collated the policies of most journal publishers and this will tell you if you can archive your work and which version of the published text is appropriate. There are three levels of publication listed on Sherpa Romeo:

In most cases the publishers are happy for authors to store the Author’s post-print on their institutional research repository but may require an embargo period of some months before it can be made freely available. Some also require that a piece of set text is appended to the uploaded copy of the work, or that the work is uploaded in a particular format. Repository staff are happy to help with any of these issues.

Others place more complex restrictions on Open Access Archiving or disallow it completely. In these cases the bibliographic record on the repository can be linked to the full-text. Bibliographic data and links are facts and therefore they are free of copyright limitations. Even if the full text of your work cannot be archived, its details can be listed and a link to full-text on the publishers web site given. If the reader has access to a subscription to the journal they will be able to download and read it according to the conditions of that subscription.

Where the publisher does not mention permissions relating to Open Access Archiving or the author’s agreement is not clear, a request to the publisher can clarify the position. CLoK staff can help with this process and with deciphering publisher permissions and policies.

Book chapters and Conference Papers

Unfortunately Sherpa Romeo does not cover book publishers’ policies or conference papers. Here the first source of information is the authors signed Copyright agreement, followed by a written enquiry as above. In future, researchers may wish to consider modifying their Copyright agreements so that they do not disallow self archiving on the research repository. Again, advice is available from CLoK staff.

Unpublished Materials

Copyright in unpublished materials remains with the author, or their employer. The University does not normally assert any claim to the ownership of copyright in books, reports, articles, lectures or other written work, other than that specifically commissioned by the University. In this case the decision to upload to the repository and the conditions of access rest with the creator. However, the University Research Clusters under the direction of the University Director of Research create and monitor policy relating to the upload of material to the research repository. These policies are available at http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/policies.html. Where research Cluster policies do allow the upload of unpublished material the author will be asked to grant permissions and declarations similar to that for eTheses.