Copyright for publishing

When you publish your work you will need to get permission for any copyrighted material in your work, and carefully check the copyright agreement that your publisher asks you to sign.

Assigning copyright to publishers

Most publishers will require that you assign copyright to them. If this is the case, you may not be able to reproduce your own work without permission from the publishers.

Check any copyright agreements carefully. You can sign an agreement on behalf of the University, but you may need to check with the publisher regarding signing on behalf of co-authors.

You might also want to consider open access publishing, which is where your work is made freely available subject to certain licensing conditions.

Find out more about open access.

The University also recommends that its staff and students assert their moral rights over any works they author, under the provisions of the UK's Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Using copyrighted material in a publication

You should try to use free content in your work wherever possible.

If you must use copyrighted material, ensure you seek permission from the copyright owner. Most publishers will check the manuscript for potential copyright infringement, and will rarely publish your work until permission for third party content has been secured.

Before seeking permission to use the material, you should first check whether it is out of copyright or has been made available under a licence that allows re-use.

A small amount of text for criticism or review is allowed in publications.