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Using our e-resources

Ejournal licences

The University Library signs a licence with each publisher, permitting certain activities and prohibiting others. You must ensure that your use of an electronic resource does not breach these licence conditions.

Permitted uses of ejournals

Current staff and students of the University of Leeds may:

  • print a copy of an ejournal article for personal use (research, teaching, private study)
  • download a copy of an ejournal article for personal use (research, teaching, private study)
  • send a copy of an article to another authorised user.

Prohibited uses of ejournals

You may not:

  • store entire electronic books
  • remove, alter, or obscure any copyright notices or text from any ejournal article
  • use the ejournals for commercial purposes (including student placements) unless you are sure this is allowed under the provider's terms and conditions
  • make multiple printed or electronic copies of ejournal articles
  • systematically download articles from an ejournal. This includes downloading, saving, or printing an excessive portion of the service (for example, all articles from one issue of a journal); and using a website copier or an offline browser
  • pass ejournal articles on to unauthorised users either by using email attachments or by sharing passwords
  • make print copies of the article to pass on to unauthorised users
  • make ejournal articles available through an unsecured internet server
  • make ejournal articles available through a network or VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) unless you know this is specifically allowed under the provider's terms and conditions. If you want to use an electronic journal for this purpose, you are advised to consult the licence terms for that journal, which are often available on the provider site.

We are liable if the restrictions on our licence are abused. If we suspect abuse by a registered user we have the capability to monitor their use of our electronic resources.

See also the Library regulations section on copyright acknowledgement and licences.

For more information on our electronic resource licences, contact us.