For HDR and researchers

When including reproductions of copyright material in a research publication (including theses) that are not Creative Commons licenced, obtain permission to use the material from the copyright owner. Clause (79) of SCU's Research Publications, Dissemination and Authorship Procedures requires you to do this before publishing the work.

Be aware that:

• the copyright owner has the right to say no and if this is the case you will not be able to use their work
• the copyright owner may charge a fee
• it may take months for permission to be granted so allow plenty of time
• permission must be requested in writing and the response kept on record.

See Requesting permission to use copyright material in a research publication, presentation, or poster for guidance.

Including copyright material in a conference presentation or poster is different to creating material for teaching and may not be covered under the Australian copyright law. Instances that might be covered under Australian law include using:

• an insubstantial portion of a work, provided it is not important or essential to the original work (e.g. a short quote from a book)
• material for criticism, review or parody (these uses would potentially be considered a "fair dealing").

If you are presenting at an international conference the law of the host country will apply. Seek guidance from the conference organisers on what is allowable. 

Otherwise, avoid infringing copyright by:

• only including material you have created
• using material that has a Creative Commons or other relevant open licence
• seeking written permission to use the material from the copyright owner (this permission must be retained).

All material included in your conference presentation or poster should be correctly attributed.

Submitting conference presentations and posters to Cross Connect

Before submitting conference presentations and posters to Cross Connect, the author should check that they retained copyright in the material under their agreement with the conference organiser.

When submitting conference presentation slides or posters to Cross Connect that include copyright material the team may ask for evidence that an appropriate licence or permission has been obtained. If the appropriate documentation can not be provided, only a record with information about the conference presentation or poster will be published in Cross Connect.

Permission to reuse copyright material should be sought from the copyright owner in writing. The copyright owner is generally the individual creator of the material. However, depending on circumstances, could be a publisher, family member, or organisation. In your request provide specific details including:

• who you are
• what you would like to reproduce (include a description and link to the item where possible)
• how the material will be used (state clearly if you are seeking permission to use the work for non-commercial purposes)
• the type of licence you would like to be granted (e.g. limited, non-exclusive licence for a set period)
• how you will attribute or reference the work
• details of your research and/or where the work will be published, including whether it will be open access.

Some publishers have online request forms (e.g. RightsLink or Copyright Clearance Center). 

When publishing open access (OA) authors generally retain copyright. However, traditional publishing agreements may include a clause transferring copyright to the publisher which may limit authors from:

• including a copy of their research output in Cross Connect
• reusing the article or material published within it (e.g. reproducing images in a subsequent publication).

It is a requirement under clause (83) of SCU's Research Publications, Dissemination and Authorship Procedures that corresponding authors deposit an eligible OA version of SCU research into Cross Connect. If an OA publishing option is not available, check the terms of the publishing agreement to ensure it includes the right to deposit the author accepted manuscript (AAM) or preprint in Cross Connect (see Submitting your research to Cross Connect). SPARC's page on Author Rights and the Author Addendum template have example terms that can be incorporated into a publishing agreement to retain the relevant rights.

A research output can be submitted to Cross Connect by the copyright owner. If the research output includes third-party copyright material the Cross Connect team may request evidence that permission or a licence to reproduce the material was obtained. 

Depending on the copyright ownership of the work one of the following versions will be uploaded to Cross Connect.

Versions that can be uploaded

Works published open access

When the work has been published open access or is otherwise freely available online, the Cross Connect team will link to the public version and upload a copy of the work if the Creative Commons licence permits.

Works published behind a paywall

The version of a commercially published article that can be made available in Cross Connect will depend on:

• the publisher's self-archiving policy
• whether the author exercised rights retention when submitting the article to the publisher (see Your rights as a creator when publishing your research). 

Publishers often include deposit conditions in their self-archiving policy which can include details of the version of the work that can be archived (author accepted manuscript), a requirement to acknowledge the publisher, link to the final version, observation of an embargo period, or paying a fee. Information on the deposit conditions of different publishers can be found on Open policy finder. The Cross Connect team will check relevant policies and apply any conditions or acknowledgements required by the publisher or advise you if the work is not eligible for self-archiving. If you choose to request, and are granted, permission directly from the publisher to self-archive a work, provide this permission to the Cross Connect team.

Works that have not been published

Unpublished work, for example a preprint, can be submitted to Cross Connect, provided there are no other agreements transferring copyright elsewhere or prohibiting publication. The Cross Connect team may ask you to confirm copyright ownership and the conditions of relevant agreements before publishing the material. You will also need to nominate which CC licence you would like to apply to the work. See Creative Commons for information on how to choose a licence.

In most cases the copyright in a thesis is owned by the HDR student. Exceptions apply where the thesis:

• is subject to a commercial-in-confidence agreement (e.g. if your thesis has been sponsored by a commercial entity and you have entered a contractual agreement. Check the terms of the contract if this is the case)
• contains published articles (check your author-publisher agreement to ensure you have retained the right to include the articles in the online version of your thesis).

Submitting a thesis to Cross Connect is considered publishing the thesis. If the thesis contains third-party copyright materials (e.g. images that have been created by someone else) permission must be sought from the copyright owner before the thesis is published (see Using third-party copyright material in research publications). HDR students will be asked to confirm the relevant permission/s have been sought before the thesis is made available in Cross Connect. In instances where the author is unable to confirm that permission to reproduce the material has been obtained, the material will be redacted. If undertaking a thesis by publication, follow the Guidelines for Incorporating Publications into a Thesis provided by the Graduate School. 

Copyright does not protect ideas or facts, so whether data collected for a research project attracts copyright protection will depend on the way the data is presented or formatted. The following broad principles will apply when determining whether copyright subsists in a dataset:

• the dataset was created by an identifiable individual
• the individual used sufficient intellectual effort and creativity
• the intellectual effort and creativity is visible in the resulting dataset (Australian Copyright Council Australia, Databases & Copyright, 2023).

In general data generated and arranged by a machine will not attract copyright protection, however, data where there is visible creativity in the selection and arrangement will (ARDC, Research Data Rights Management Guide, 2019). 

Using data

When using an existing dataset that has already been published or is publicly available for your research:

• establish who holds the rights in the material
• check copyright and licence terms and conditions.

If the data has been made available under a Creative Commons (CC) licence, it can be used according to the terms of the licence. If it is not covered by a CC licence, check if there are other terms and conditions that allow the use of the data for the purposes of your research.

If the data does not have a licence or terms and conditions that allow you to use the data for your intended purpose, request permission from the rights holder. In the request outline:

• your research project
• how the data will be used
• where and how the data will be stored
• whether you plan to publish your findings.

Retain a written copy of the permission granted by the copyright owner, the licence, or terms and conditions for your records.

Copyright ownership and data

Data is governed by the same intellectual property rights as other work you create. Staff and students who collaborate with third-parties, should check the terms of their agreement to determine the intellectual property ownership of the data created as part of the research project.

Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP)

ICIP recognises the significant connection between Indigenous peoples, their knowledge and cultural heritage. ICIP includes:

• traditional knowledge
• traditional cultural expression
• performances
• cultural objects
• human remains and tissues
• secret and sacred material and information
• documentation of First Nations peoples' heritage in any media (National Library of Australia, Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, 2023).

ICIP should be treated like copyright and permission to collect, store, and reuse the data should be negotiated in collaboration with the ICIP owners.