As part of your work, you will use a range of material produced by others. The copyright for these items is held by someone other than you. This is referred to as third-party copyright. It is important to acknowledge the use of the work of others and ensure that you obtain the proper permissions when reusing material.
Some academic and research reuse will fall under exceptions known as fair dealing in UK copyright law. There is a specific exception for research and private study.
However, there are certain type of material, in particular images where fair dealing is not easily applicable. This is because an image is the whole work rather than a section of the work.
In the case of images, illustrations, models, it is important to establish the right to use them in your thesis.
If you use your own articles, you also need to secure the right to reuse these if they have been published through the traditional model of publishing with a copyright transfer agreement or exclusive license to the publisher.
You also need to think that as part of the institution's commitment to Open Research and our Open Access Mandate, there is a requirement for theses to be added to SURE for graduation purposes. This means that your thesis will be available openly to all in our institutional repository.
Ensuring you have the right to use the material you add to your thesis is important. If you do not obtain proper permissions, you might have to add a redacted version to the repository, or place it under permanent embargo. This would mean that instead of being able to share your valuable work as soon as you graduate, it would have to be hidden.
If your thesis contains third-party copyrighted material, you are responsible for seeking permission from the rights holder. The permission should include the rights to make the materials available through the University's institutional repository.
Remember that even where you do not need permission, all third-party material should be fully acknowledged with proper referencing.
If you include third-party copyright, make sure it has a purpose and it is commented upon in your work, especially when using material for which you need to ask permission for re-use.
Permission is required whenever material is under copyright by the copyright holder and they have not made it clear that the material can be reused.
It is recommended that you ask for permission as you work on your thesis. It can be a long process and leaving it to the end might create issues when you want to submit your work. If you have not obtained permissions, you will need to redact these from the copy that will go online on our repository (SURE).
There are some cases where an author might have assigned a creative commons license to their work. This will generally specify the types of permitted reuse. If they permit reuse and distribution for non-commercial purposes this can be added to your dissertation without requesting permission as long as you credit the author properly.
If the work is in the public domain, you can also reuse it without seeking permission.
You need to obtain informed consent from the right-holder of the material you want to use in your thesis.
Copyright can belong to the individual who created the work or might have been transfered (to a publisher for instance). You will need to contact the person who holds the rights.
When contacting the copyright holder, you need to:
If permission if granted, you should acknowledge it in your work with a statement. This can be included in a declaration in your thesis, or as part of the list of illustrations, or figures if more appropriate.
For example: "Permission to reproduce this [details of content] has been granted by [rights holder information]"
When you complete your PhD, you will be asked to sign a declaration form. One of the declarations you are asked to sign relates to having obtained permissions for third party material.
The declaration states "I certify that where necessary I have obtained permission from the owners of third party copyrighted material to include this material in my thesis."
Make sure that you can sign this declaration with confidence.
There are further useful resources and links that you can explore to understand better when you might need to ask for permission and how to make use of third-party material in your thesis:
University of Cambridge Advice on copyright material provides a list of the type of material for which you should consider obtaining permission.
UKRI released a guide on Managing third party copyright for research publications as part of their Open Access policy.