Copyright Office

Copyright and the University of Melbourne Eprints Repository (UMER)

Copyright Information for Depositors

General
Copyright Ownership
Third Party Copyright Works
Information for End-users
Infringement of Copyright on UMER
Other Legal and Ethical Considerations

General 

UMER is an open access repository. This means that materials made available in full text on UMER are available free for worldwide public access. The objective of the repository is to capture and display the intellectual output of the University such as unpublished theses, published journal articles and chapters of books and conference papers. However, before these materials can be made available on open access, rights must be managed to prevent copyright infringement.

The University Copyright Office currently checks the copyright policies of all published works that are submitted to the Repository. Items are not made available for open access until staff are confident that publisher copyright policies are not breached by uploading the item to UMER. While every attempt is made to ensure that all copyright and legal obligations are met, responsibility for complying with the intellectual property rights of any third party - or with any contracts that you may have entered into - and with copyright legislation in general rests with the individual making the submission.

Further information about copyright can be obtained from the University Copyright Office web site, or you can send an email query to copyright-office@ unimelb.edu.au. If you are concerned about submitting your work to UMER, please seek legal advice.

A comprehensive guide to managing copyright in theses entitled Copyright Guide for Research Students: What you need to know about copyright before depositing your electronic thesis in an online repository has been produced by the OakLaw Project at QUT Law School; this is available for download.

1. Copyright Ownership

There is no transfer of copyright ownership when a work is submitted to UMER. The copyright owner retains all rights under copyright law and grants the university a non-exclusive right to use content posted in the repository. A non-exclusive licence means that the copyright owner is able to subsequently reproduce and/or publish the work with another publisher or in another medium.

Before a work is deposited in UMER, the author must accept the terms and conditions of the Eprint Repository Agreement. In this agreement the author warrants that he/she has the right to submit the work to UMER and does not breach the intellectual property rights of another rights holder. For this reason it is important to be clear about who owns the copyright in a work. This is not always clear cut, as there may be joint authors or the rights may have been assigned or licensed to a publisher or to the funding body that funded the research. In these cases, it might be necessary to ask for permission before the work is deposited on UMER.

1.1 Joint Authors

If the work has more than one author then permission to deposit the work on UMER must be obtained from all co-authors who retain rights in the work.

1.2 Unpublished Works and Theses

Generally the author of a work is the owner of copyright in an unpublished work such as a thesis. However, funded research may be subject to copyright restrictions as part of the funding agreement. It is necessary to examine any agreements that specify the uses that can be made of the completed research. It is also possible that an employer may own the copyright if the work was conducted in the course of employment.

A comprehensive guide to managing copyright in theses entitled Copyright Guide for Research Students: What you need to know about copyright before depositing your electronic thesis in an online repository has been produced by the OakLaw Project at QUT Law School; this is available for download.

1.3 Journal Articles
Author transfers copyright to the publisher:

It is common practice for an author to either assign copyright to a publisher or to sign an exclusive licence with a publisher. By this action, the author transfers all rights in the publication to the publisher. Permission is required from the publisher for these works to be submitted to UMER.

The University Copyright Office currently checks the copyright policies of all journal articles that are submitted to the Repository. Articles are not made available for open access until staff are confident that publisher copyright policies are not breached by uploading the item to UMER.

It is often worthwhile to carefully scrutinise the licence agreement that you entered into with the publisher since many publishers do allow some versions of the article to be reproduced on an institutional repository such as UMER.  Sometimes publishers’ copyright policies regarding open access repositories are also displayed on the publisher’s web site.  Many are listed by the SHERPA/RoMEO Project at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php. 

The publisher may permit one or more of the following versions of an article to be made available on an institutional repository:

  1. Pre-print version – the pre-refereed version that is submitted for publication.
  2. Post-print version – includes corrections made as a result of the refereeing process. This is usually very close to the version accepted for final publication, but it is not presented in the publisher's typeset.
  3. Publisher version – the final version as published in the journal using the publisher’s formatting and typesetting.

If the licence agreement does not specifically permit one of these versions to be placed on an institutional repository, then it will be necessary to ask for permission before any of these versions can be made available on UMER. The University Copyright Office will seek these permissions.

Author retains copyright:

If the author retains copyright then it is not usually necessary to ask for permission to submit the article to UMER. However, it is still necessary to check the licence agreement that you entered into with the publisher, since sometimes the licence can be quite restrictive even though you retain copyright. Sometimes a non-exclusive licence limits the version that can be placed in an institutional repository, or may insist upon a period of embargo before an article can be made available for open access. If you have agreed to such conditions, these must be observed. The University Copyright Office will make every effort to check these details.

1.4 Chapters in Published Books

Generally, copyright in a published book is transferred to the publisher. Permission is required from the publisher for these works to be submitted to UMER. The University Copyright Office will seek these permissions before the work is made available for open access.

It is often worthwhile to carefully examine the agreement that you entered into with the publisher since some publishers may allow some versions of the article to be reproduced on an institutional repository such as UMER.

1.5 Conference Papers

It is difficult to generalise about conference papers. If copyright is retained by the author, then the author can deposit the paper on UMER as long as there are no further conditions imposed by the conference organisers in an agreement with the author. If the author transferred copyright to the conference organisers, or gave them an exclusive licence to use the work, then it would be necessary to ask for permission. As with journals and books, it is necessary to carefully look at any agreements with the conference organisers and there may also be relevant information on the conference web site about ownership of copyright.

2. Including Third Party Copyright Works in Your Online Thesis

Third party copyright material refers to any material that you may have reproduced in your thesis that is still subject to copyright and does not belong to you. That is, copyright material to which you do not own the rights. For example, you may have reproduced images, artworks, maps, diagrams, substantial amounts of text etc. that are still subject to copyright. While the Fair Dealing exceptions in the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) often allow you to reproduce a limited amount of third party copyright works in your thesis for the purpose of study and research, you cannot rely upon these provisions when you publish the work to the world in an online open access repository. In this situation you must always seek the permission of the copyright owner.

2.1 Requesting Permission

You are responsible for obtaining permission for any third party copyright works that you may have used in your work. This means that you are required to seek permission to use any works that you have included where the intellectual property does not belong to you. Further information about obtaining permission from a copyright owner and templates for a sample permission letter have been produced by the Copyright Office.

Where the work has already been published, the University Copyright Office will seek permission from the publisher to place the materials online.

3. Information for End-users

Copyright in works deposited in UMER is retained by the copyright owner. The work may not be altered without permission from the copyright owner. Readers may copy, download, print and save electronic copies of whole papers for their own personal non-commercial use only.  Any use that exceeds these limits requires permission from the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from these works.

If you wish to use the material for any purpose other than those outlined above you should contact the author direct as requests of this nature are not processed through this repository.

4. Do You Think Your Copyright Has Been Infringed?

If you believe copyright work available on UMER constitutes copyright infringement, or a breach of an agreed licence or contract, please notify us using the takedown notice.

5. Other Legal and Ethical Considerations

Copyright is not the only legal and ethical issue for consideration when depositing your work.  A range of legislation may be applicable and there may also be contractual requirements that you should consider.  For example, a work should NOT be deposited in UMER if:

top of page