As a graduate student, copyrighting impacts you in two ways. First, as the writer, you have legal rights concerning the contents of your thesis/dissertation. Second, as a researcher, you must make every effort not to violate the copyrights of others. Please visit https://lib.asu.edu/policies/copyright for more information.
Copyrighting Your Own Work
All works under copyright protection and published in the United States on or after March 1, 1989, are subject to mandatory deposit. Usually, the holder of the copyright is required to submit two copies of the copyrighted work to the Copyright Office. Section 704 of the Copyright Act states that these deposits “are available to the Library of Congress for its collection, or for exchange or transfer to any other library.” Circular 1 Copyright Basics and Circular 7d Mandatory Deposit of Copies (copyright.gov/circs) provide useful information about the copyright process.
If you have questions, you may contact the Copyright Office Public Information Office on the Internet at copyright.gov or by phone at (202) 707-3000. The form used to register a copyright for most documents is Form TX. Certain documents in the performing arts, such as musical scores or plays, may require Form PA. Contact the Copyright Office if you are not sure which form to use. Application forms are available online at copyright.gov/forms.
You can apply for a copyright through UMI/ProQuest when you submit your document through ETD. If you plan on copyrighting your document, follow these additional formatting instructions:
Place the copyright symbol (©) on the lower half of a second page after the title page with the year and your name centered between the margins. The copyright symbol meets the requirements of the Universal Copyright Convention to which the United States and most European and Asian nations belong. You should also include the statement “All Rights Reserved” below the copyright line. This statement will afford additional protection under the Buenos Aires Convention, to which the United States and most Latin American nations belong.
©2011 Your Full Name
All Rights Reserved
The copyright page will become your second page, between the title page and the abstract. Please note that the copyright page does not change pagination; your abstract will still be page ‘i’.
If you include a copyright page, then you must pay the copyright fee.
Using the Copyrighted Work of Others
Copyrighted material includes tables, charts, graphs, maps, questionnaires, illustrations, photographs, literary works, etc. It is against the law to reproduce copyrighted materials, in full or in part, without permission of the copyright owner. If you need to include copyrighted source material in your document, you must obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to its use. The written permission you secure from the author or publisher to use copyrighted work in your document should be included in an appendix.
Fair Use rights have the same legal standing in the law as the copyright owner's rights. Fair Use allows for the limited use of copyrighted content (such as tables, maps, or works of art) to create new works that benefit society. Before you complete your document, consult copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
ProQuest Copyright Guidelines
Refer to "Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis: Ownership, Fair Use, and Your Rights and Responsibilities" from ProQuest at https://pq-static-content.proquest.com/collateral/media2/documents/copyright_dissthesis_ownership.pdf
Part I: Getting Started
Why copyright?
In the academic context, copyright is primarily about getting the most from your scholarly work, and it is less about legal complications with threats of possible liabilities. Taking the time to learn a little about copyright can give you the insight to know your options under the law, to make your dissertation more successful, and to help you avoid possible copyright conflicts and dilemmas in the future. The subject of this manual is your dissertation, but many of the issues here will arise in all of your future scholarship. With each article, book, computer program, website, and other new work that you prepare throughout your career, you will find that giving some attention to copyright will make your publications more successful. Your dissertation is just the start.
Finishing your dissertation is exhausting and gratifying. You have invested countless days of research, followed by hours of writing late into the night. You made exciting breakthroughs, and you aspire to a career of further research. You probably did not expect to indulge in copyright at this stage of your study. However, attention to copyright can help avoid pitfalls and reveal opportunities to further your scholarly goals. Given the way that the law operates, copyright law most certainly protects your dissertation as well as the quotations, photographs, music, diagrams, and many other works that you have included in your doctoral study. The decisions you make about copyright can directly affect the quality of your work, your ability to publish your dissertation, and your opportunities for building upon your years of research throughout your career. Attending to the fundamentals of copyright can be important for your scholarship, regardless of your discipline or field of expertise.
Common Scenarios
What copyright issues need your attention? Consider a few common and practical examples of copyright’s relationship to dissertations. These scenarios highlight strategic alternatives for dealing with copyright challenges effectively and successfully.
Photographs, Art, and Architecture. Alice is completing her dissertation on art and architectural history and wants to include a variety of photographs, drawings, and artistic renderings from throughout the twentieth century. Nearly all of those works are protectable by copyright. We can ponder whether it is likely that any copyright owner would object, but when a copyright owner does show up to object, it is a serious nuisance or worse. At the very least, Alice may find herself scrambling to secure permissions, or dealing with objections as they arise with the ensuing prospect of modifying her dissertation or blocking online access to it. Alice’s solution? With a little advance planning, she can explore her options, evaluate fair use, secure any needed permissions, and even find alternative images that are in the public domain or licensed for these uses—including the many images available on the web with Creative Commons licenses. Attending to copyright matters early can prevent complications and delays in filing her dissertation.
Chemistry Journal Articles. Belinda successfully published two articles in leading chemistry journals during her years as a graduate student. When the articles were originally accepted for publication, she and her advisor were delighted, and Belinda was happy to move the articles as quickly as possible toward publication. She is now preparing her final dissertation, and it will include full reprints of the two articles. However, she only now realized that her publication agreements with the journals included a transfer in full of the copyrights. She may be the author, but she no longer holds the right to reproduce the articles in her dissertation. Belinda’s solution? By understanding her own rights as an author and taking greater care with her publication agreements she might have avoided this situation. Most journals would probably support Belinda’s dissertation, but she now needs to find the right contact for each journal and clear the right to use even her own articles. Advance planning when she originally published the articles would have been best.
Scholarly Book on Asian Literature. Carlos is filing his dissertation on comparative Asian literature and is pondering the various choices for open access and Creative Commons.
Carlos is a strong supporter of open access to information, and his university requires that dissertations go into the digital repository. His advisor is cautioning Carlos that some university presses might not publish a scholarly book based on a dissertation that is easily accessible on the internet. Carlos’s solution? Carlos has an opportunity to make careful and informed decisions about the management or stewardship of his own copyrights. He needs to anticipate future plans, investigate alternatives, and make well-informed decisions. Most publishers do not balk at a work based on an open-access dissertation, but a few may. Reactions will vary widely among publishers and across disciplines. Carlos should also evaluate his options about open access, temporary embargoes, and different CC licenses. He might explore nontraditional or innovative publishers that have adapted to more flexible terms. By recognizing his rights as the copyright owner, Carlos is positioned to better manage his work, allow appropriate access, and preserve his opportunities for future publications.
Notice that these scenarios are not filled with threats and allegations. Few copyright matters in higher education rise to that level. These scenarios are principally about two other concepts. First,
they are about respecting copyright. Copyright is part of the process of creating and sharing research. We need to respect the copyrights of others, and we need to show respect for our own copyrights through careful management. Second, the scenarios are about advance planning and strategic choices. Solutions to the copyright concerns in each case are possible by learning a bit about the law, considering alternatives, and making informed and reasoned decisions that can help prevent problems before they have a chance to interfere with your work or stall the filing of your dissertation.
Making a Plan of Action
The copyright guidance in this manual is structured to help you quickly understand and focus on the issues that are important to your dissertation and future scholarship. Here is a suggested process for addressing copyright:
- First, read the overview of copyright fundamentals in Part II.
- Second, review the questions in Part III and identify the ones that are relevant to your work.
- Third, make a plan of action related to your copyright questions. Some of the most important and common questions are reflected in the scenarios about Alice, Belinda, and Carlos:
- If your dissertation will have photographs, extensive quotations, and other materials from third-party sources, evaluate the copyright status of each and whether your use may be fair use or need permission.
- If you are in the middle of your graduate study and plan to publish some of your research, choose a publisher that will accommodate your dissertation plans, and study closely the terms of the publication agreement.
- If you are completing your dissertation, evaluate and select the options about Creative Commons or open access that might be right for you.
Part II: Fundamentals of Copyright for Dissertations
What do you really need to know about copyright? Start with the following core principles of copyright as applied to dissertations. Many of the most important points will be examined in greater detail with supporting references in Part IV of this manual.
Your dissertation is protectable. Copyright law protects “original” works that are “fixed” in some medium—for example, written on paper, stored on a computer drive, sculpted in clay, or recorded on tape or other media. You wrote your dissertation, using your original words or other expression.
You probably have “fixed” it in various ways.
Your dissertation in fact is protected. It would be a rare and unusual dissertation that is not protected. A work that is “original” and “fixed” is protected automatically under copyright law. You do not need to register it with the U.S. Copyright Office or even put a copyright notice on the dissertation.
It is copyrighted upon creation. Those procedures and formalities may be a good idea—as will be explained later—but they are not required for copyright protection.
You are most likely the copyright owner. Copyright ownership vests initially with the person who created the new work. If you wrote the dissertation, you own the copyright. However, it is possible that you may have entered into a funding or employment arrangement that would place copyright ownership with someone else. Review your agreements carefully.
You can decide how to publish your work. Students should consult with their advisors and other officials about local university policies related to depositing dissertations with university repositories and possible “embargoes” or postponements on public release of your dissertation. To be clear, when you deposit your work with ProQuest, the company does not ask for a transfer of the copyright. Your rights in your work do not change. As long as you hold the copyright, you are in general able to decide how your dissertation may be made available, reworked into a book, or divided into a few journal articles. As the copyright owner, you get to make those decisions. But if you give away your copyright—as some publication agreements require—you can lose all of those opportunities and privileges.
You can decide to enforce your rights or share them. As the copyright owner, you have the legal right to enforce claims against infringers. At the same time, you also have the privilege of allowing uses. You can grant permission on request, or you can attach a Creative Commons license to your work that permits broad public use.
The works you included from other sources are also likely copyrighted. Just as the law protects your dissertation, it also protects most of the original text, music, photographs, computer code, and other materials that you borrowed from other sources to include in your dissertation. Respecting those copyrights is part of the process.
You have options for properly including materials from other sources. Copyright law offers three basic possibilities. First, the work may be in the public domain. Copyrights eventually expire, placing the works in the public domain. Some works, such as works of the U.S. government, are not protectable at all. Second, your use of copyrighted works may be within fair use. Third, you may secure permission from the copyright owner. That permission may come from an individual request, or the source itself may have a Creative Commons license or other statement permitting your use.
Keep your copyrights and keep copies of your agreements. Whenever you enter into a publication agreement or other agreement related to your dissertation or any future work, read it, negotiate the terms, and keep a copy of everything you sign. Similarly, keep copies of all permission letters—ones you send to secure permission, and ones you receive from the next researcher wanting to use your copyrighted works.
As you can see, copyright grants rights and imposes responsibilities. One virtue of copyright law is that it offers options. You can manage your own copyright in ways that are protective or generous. You can be cautious or assertive about fair use. For the most part, you decide how you want to face up to the copyright tasks at hand. Either way, you need to learn a little about the law and make well- informed choices.
Part IV: A Closer Look at Copyright
The fundamentals of copyright are reasonably straightforward, but details can get complex. Writings on the law of copyright fill volumes. For a few of the issues relevant to dissertations, a closer look at some details is warranted.
The Public Domain
Look at the second scenario about Belinda’s dissertation in chemistry. While almost all recent books and journal articles are protected by copyright, Belinda is wondering if many other materials she is finding and developing are outside the bounds of copyright. Works without copyright protection are in the “public domain,” which means that Belinda can use them without concern about restrictions or legal claims based on copyright law.11 The public domain comprises several categories of works, all of which are potentially useful to Belinda and other students:
Ideas and Discoveries. The law specifically states that ideas, processes, concepts, and discoveries are not eligible for copyright. Belinda may be using crucial concepts and formulas that can earn Nobel prizes in chemistry, but copyright law does not protect them. If copyright granted legal control over ideas, the expansion of knowledge would be severely constrained. Belinda is free to build on the ideas of others, although the words and the computer code manifesting those ideas may well have copyright protection.
Works created by the U.S. Government. A specific statute prohibits copyright protection for federal government works, but even this rule is not so simple.13 Reports written by members of Congress and employees of federal agencies, as part of their public function, are not copyrighted. But projects written by non-government officials with federal funding are protectable. Belinda’s graduate research may be funded by the NSF or other federal agency; the grant alone does not put her work in the public domain. Further, the exclusion applies only to works of the United States federal government. State, local, and foreign governments are left to decide whether their own works will have copyright protection. If it is not clear whether a specific governmental work may have copyright protection, inquire with the appropriate agency that created or published it.
Some Foreign Works. Consistent with the terms of the Berne Convention and other multinational treaties, U.S. copyright law protects most foreign works on generally the same terms as domestic works.14 Only a few countries have not entered into copyright treaties or agreements with the U.S., leaving their works unprotected in this country. A publication from the U.S. Copyright Office notes the few countries with no copyright ties to the U.S., or whose relations are “unclear.”15
Works that are not “Fixed.” Works that are not “fixed” in a tangible medium are not protected under federal copyright law. A speech or music performance that is not recorded, written, or otherwise
“fixed” in some medium is not protectable under U.S. copyright law. Works that are not “fixed” are sometimes protected under legal systems created by individual states, and some countries protected works that are not fixed.
Images of Art. An important court decision in 1999 clarified the nettlesome question of whether “copy photography” of a public domain artwork is a new copyrighted creation.16 Whether the work is a recent Warhol or a public domain Rembrandt, many photographers have claimed a separate copyright in the photographic reproduction. The court ruled that a direct and accurate reproduction of the original painting lacks “originality” and is not protected by copyright.17 Photographic reproductions of works of art and other graphic images are important in many scholarly studies.
Alice may have art images in her study of architectural history. Belinda’s dissertation could have similar issues if, for example, she is analyzing the chemistry of art restoration. If the work is recent and still protected by copyright, such as a painting by Warhol or Picasso, the artist or the artist’s successors clearly have some rights in the image.
Expired Copyrights. Copyrights may last a long time, but they do eventually expire, and the works enter the public domain.18 The U.S. Constitution specifies that copyrights shall last only for “limited times,” and the current law grants privileges in most cases for the life of the author, plus 70 years.19 For many dissertations, identifying works to use that are in the public domain can be enormously important. Alice’s study of architectural historical and Carlos’s study of literature might realistically include lengthy reprinting of images and text from decades ago, and those works might be without any copyright restriction. The law of copyright duration in the U.S. is an awkward blend of contemporary rules and holdovers from the legal regime that existed before 1978. The law of copyright duration varies in different countries. The following rules will likely address almost all of the situations you will encounter under U.S. law in your research.
Works Created in or after 1978:
- Works Created on or after January 1, 1978: As a general proposition, the copyrights last for the life of the author, plus 70 years. All copyrights expire at the end of the year. As an example, the author Saul Bellow died on April 5, 2005. His copyrights created in and after 1978 will enter the public domain at the end of the day on December 31, 2075. This rule applies to all types of works, and regardless of whether the work is published or unpublished.
- Works Made for Hire created on or after January 1, 1978: If the work is made “for hire,” such as a work created by an employee acting within the scope of employment, the duration depends on whether the work is published or not.21 The copyright lasts for the shorter of either of these terms: 120 years from the date or creation, or 95 years from the date of publication. For example, your dissertation on business economics may be based on memos and internal correspondence of a major company. A document created in 1980 will have copyright protection through the year 2100. If it had been published in 1985, the copyright will instead expire at the end of 2080. Either way, the copyright has a long time still in store. The same rules apply to anonymous and pseudonymous works.
Works Created before 1978:
- Works created and published before 1978: As a general rule, works published before 1978 have a maximum of 95 years of protection. In a convoluted statutory twist, this rule applies only to works published on or after January 1, 1923. Works published before 1923 are in the public domain. An important variation on this rule is detailed below.
- Works created before 1978 and not Published: If the work has never been published, the copyright last for the terms outlined above. The general rule is life of the author plus 70 years. For example, because the author F. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940, his copyrights in unpublished materials entered the public domain in the U.S. at the end of the year 2010. His letters, journals, photographs, and other works that were never published are now in the public domain. If the unpublished material is deemed to be works made for hire, then the copyrights last for the term of 120 years. The copyright in an internal corporate memo from 1880 expired and entered the public domain at the end of 2000.
- Works created before 1978, but published before the end of 2002: Before the copyright revisions that took effect in 1978, the copyright in unpublished works lasted in perpetuity. The time limit on copyright duration did not begin until the author or other rightsholder chose to publish the work. As a result, the papers of George Washington and other writers from the distant past were long restricted by copyright law. Congress brought perpetual protection to an end, but it allowed owners a grace period through December 31, 2002. If the rightful owner of a copyright from the past were to publish it by that date, Congress gave assurance that the copyright would not expire before December 31, 2047.26 For example, Mark Twain died in 1910. His papers have been curated at the University of California, Berkeley, where many of them were rather formalistically published in 2001 in microfilm at the hefty price of $50,000. Few buyers showed up, but the act of publishing was accomplished. Instead of expiring at the end of 2002, the Twain copyrights were thus stretched through 2047. As a researcher trying to determine whether materials are in the public domain, this provision means you may have to track the full publishing history of the works.
Consider again the basic rule that a publication from before 1978 may be protected for up to 95 years. It is possible that the copyright expired sooner, depending on compliance with the “formalities” of notice and registration as were once required. Under the law before 1978, a formal copyright notice (such as “Copyright 1940, Dolores B. Author”) was required. Upon publication with a proper notice, the copyright lasted for a term of 28 years. By filing a renewal registration with the Copyright Office in the twenty-eighth year, the term could be extended to what is now a total of 95 years. If a published work from 1940, for example, were renewed in 1968, the copyright would remain in force until 2035. Such a work had two chances to enter the public domain: It might have been published without a notice or with a defective notice and entered the public domain in 1940; or the copyright owner might have neglected to renew the copyright and it entered the public domain in 1968. As a result, it is possible to investigate specific works published between the beginning of 1923 and the end of 1963 to determine whether they are in the public domain.
Investigating these possibilities can involve research in the law, the facts, and the registration and renewal records. Registration records are public, and the Copyright Office will conduct searches for a fee. Computer online searches are also available through some database providers and on the Internet. A current study at the University of Michigan is leading to identification of numerous books in the public domain due to failure to renew the copyrights. These publications and many other public domain works from 1923 to 1964 are being opened for access on HathiTrust, the Internet Archive, and other online services.
The Importance of Fair Use
Nearly every dissertation includes some example of a fair use of copyrighted works. Looking back at the scenarios in Part I, the dissertations on diverse subjects are almost certain to include brief quotations from other sources. Carlos’s study of literature may have quotations from novels and poems. Belinda’s chemistry study might reprint diagrams, graphs, and charts. Alice’s study of architecture history may well include extracts from archival correspondence, architectural drawings, photographs, video clips, and many other types of works in diverse media.
Whenever you work with materials from other sources, your general strategy should be to keep all options open. First, your strongest option is to identify some materials as public domain. Second, you will sometimes need to secure permission. You may have to track down rightsholders, or in other instances the permission may be granted up front in the form of Creative Commons or other license. Third, fair use permits the limited use of some copyrighted works without permission from the copyright owner. Fair use is especially applicable to scholarly research and study, but it does not allow everything. The following summary offers an overview of the factors that you need to evaluate and weigh in the balance, and it wraps up with examples and a few practical suggestions about common fair use situations.
What is Fair Use?
Fair use is an exception to the rights of copyright owners. Few countries have a concept akin to fair use, but it is a central part of U.S. law. Congress articulated the framework of the law in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright with four factors that had been developed through a long history of court decisions: (1) The purpose and character of the use; (2) The nature of the copyrighted work used; (3) The amount and substantiality of the work used; and (4) The effect of the use on the market or potential market for the work.
Keep in mind that all four factors work together in the fair use equation. Be careful not to reach hasty conclusions, such as assuming that all academic uses are “fair” or that all commercial uses are not fair use. You also need not satisfy all four factors; courts balance them to identify their dominant disposition.
If you are looking for additional guidance to and resources to help you make more detailed applications of fair use, consider these websites:
Conclusion
Return to an opening point of this manual: You should take the time to learn and apply copyright in order to make your dissertation and your scholarly study more successful. How is that possible?
First, by clarifying your ownership of the dissertation, registering the copyright, and deciding whether a Creative Commons license is appropriate can help resolve issues that may arise as other scholars use of your dissertation. Second, by taking the time to review all of the third-party content that you are including in the dissertation, you can resolve in advance that the materials are in the public domain, or are within fair use, or require permission. With advance attention to these issues, you can prevent questions or conflicts that might arise in the future and stall your progress toward publication or jeopardize availability of your dissertation through your repository or the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database (PQDT).
Copyright is an inevitable aspect of scholarly research. Many of these issues will continue to arise in all of your academic pursuits. With each project or publication, the issues will become easier to address, and the constructive aspects of copyright will become more clear. For now, however, you can look forward to getting over the few copyright hurdles leading to filing your final dissertation and receiving the honor of a graduate degree. Congratulations!
