University regulations and policies for staff

As is the case with many employers, the University asserts ownership of all IP - including copyright - created by its employees. However, broad exceptions are made for the following types of work, except where commissioned directly as part of your employment (Regulation 12.2.2):

• Books and articles (including journalism)

• Lectures

• Teaching materials (except for online learning and distance learning courses)

• Artistic works

• Musical compositions

• Films created as part of professional practice

This means that in most circumstances, staff are recognised as the copyright owners in research publications and outputs they create whilst at the University. Other types of output, such as preprints, reports, study protocols, preregistration documentation, etc., are also understood to belong to their respective creator(s) rather than the University.

On the other hand, data, code and other forms of IP arising from research are understood to belong to the University, subject to any pre-existing agreements regarding ownership and whether the material qualifies for copyright protection. This should not prevent staff from engaging in good practice around research data management, archiving and sharing, particularly in accordance with funder requirements and the University's own Research Data Management Policy. For further guidance on archiving and sharing data, see Research Data Management: a Practical Guide.

Some forms of IP created by staff may have commercial potential, such as patentable inventions and software code. In these cases the University may wish to protect or exploit such work and negotiate how revenues and other benefits can be shared between creators and (if applicable) external funders or sponsors (Regulation 12.6-12.8). The Commercialising Research team can provide specialist advice on this.

Shared ownership

If other researchers have had significant creative involvement in your work, for example as co-authors, then you should consider their role as potential joint-owners of copyright in your outputs. The Code of Practice on Research Integrity (section 4.2) provides some specifications and principles on research authorship and the role of contributors, and it may be beneficial to get pre-agreement with group members or supervisors about how the outputs and material arising from your work will be disseminated.

Research subjects are unlikely to be able to claim copyright over their own spoken words or data. However, you should be mindful of good practice in research ethics and data protection before deciding whether to reproduce these in your own work (see Research Data Management: a Practical Guide).  Anyone involved in making a recording or creating a database may also have a legitimate claim to the copyright in their contribution.

Openly licensed material

The material you are using, or intending to use, may have been made available under a Creative Commons, open source or similar licence. Such licences allow for reuse under certain terms without having to seek permission from the rights holders or rely on legal exceptions.

Materials in all formats can potentially be made available under an open licence and should be identifiable by a licence 'mark', such as in the footer of this Practical Guide ("Except where otherwise noted, the content on these pages is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA").

Openly-licensed material is still copyright-protected in most cases, and will most likely be subject to requirements such as proper attribution (referencing). 

➤ Creative Commons for Researchers: a Practical Guide goes into more detail about these licences and how they work for creators and users

➤ A practical guide to media editing provides further information on sourcing free-to-use and openly-licensed images.

Public domain material

If you are working with historic material then its copyright protection may have expired, in which case the work will belong to the public domain and is free of restrictions on use. Other types of material may exist in the public domain because they do not meet the criteria for copyright protection, for example, factual data, principles or concepts.

It's not always clear whether material is out-of-copyright, but Creative Commons public domain tools can be used to identify the material as belonging to the public domain - including where copyright protection was never applicable or has been deliberately waived by the creator (see Creative Commons for Researchers: a Practical Guide > Public domain tools).

Copyright in literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work usually extends until 70 years after the creator’s death, but bear in mind that new editions, adaptations or translations of public domain material may qualify as original works in their own right, and will be subject to new copyright protections. The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has guidance on the duration of copyright terms including the rules that apply in different scenarios and odd cases where historic unpublished works may still be in copyright (the '2039 rule'). They also signpost the Orphan Works Licensing Scheme for scenarios where a copyright holder cannot be identified, however this scheme only permits use of such works within the UK and has been has been critiqued as impractical and unaffordable (see Naomi Korn blog post Orphan Works Post Brexit – What Next?).

Museums and galleries sometimes claim rights ownership of digital images of historic artworks or items from their collections, which would otherwise belong to the public domain. This is legally dubious, particularly in the case of two-dimensional artworks such as paintings (see this February 2024 opinion piece in Museums Journal). As an example of good practice, York Museums Trust have digitised many items from their collections and have accordingly identified those which are out of copyright using the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark (with copyright-protected images also enabled for reuse under the terms of Creative Commons licences).

➤ The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) also provides thorough guidelines on copyright duration for different formats and scenarios - see Gov.UK: How long copyright lasts

Using copyright material in your thesis

If you are using copyrighted material in your PhD research then it's important to bear in mind that you are required to deposit a copy of your examined thesis in White Rose eTheses Online (WREO), where it will be made publicly available (open access) by default  (see Sharing your research: Your thesis in WREO). 

The copyright exceptions covering private research and examination do not apply to your thesis once it is publicly available. A separate exception (CDPA S.30) enables you to incorporate reasonable portions of copyright material in your work for the purposes of criticism, review or quotation. You should provide sufficient acknowledgement where possible (that is, the source must be fully attributed in your references or image captions) and your copying must be within the scope of fair dealing:

• Can you justify the amount of material you have chosen to copy for the purposes of your research? 

• Could your use of the material impact the market value of the original work, or prevent the creator from making use of it in the way they want to? 

In addition to this, the material must have already been made available to the public, such as being shared online by the creator or formally published. The exception also states that the extent of a quotation must be "no more than is required by the specific purpose for which it is used" (although no specific limits are stated). For example, you can reproduce a few sentences of someone else's work in support of, or in opposition to, an argument you are making, but it's unlikely to be considered 'fair dealing' if you are reproducing a work in its entirety. 

If you cannot defend your use of someone else's copyrighted work as fair dealing, then you should ask the rights-holder for permission to reproduce their material in your thesis and for it to be made publicly available in WREO. If the rights-holder cannot be traced or is unwilling to grant permission, it may be possible to temporarily embargo your thesis so it is not made publicly available, or redact the material which is protected by copyright.

Using images in your thesis

You can also use copyright-protected images - photographs, drawings or figures - and, if applicable, other non-textual media in your thesis, provided that they meet the same fair dealing criteria as above. The general advice when 'quoting' an image is to use a lower resolution or cropped version so as not to impact the market value of the original work, and to provide full acknowledgement in the captions.

Be aware that even your own photos of artworks and panoramas may not be risk-free: although an artist's copyright may have expired (usually 70 years after their death), the gallery may have a 'no photographs' policy which doesn't exempt educational use, or the country where you took the photo may impose legal restrictions on the reproduction of copyright material sited in public (including France, Italy and Greece - see Wikipedia: Freedom of panorama).

Corporate logos can also be problematic as they are likely to be trademarked as well as protected by copyright, so you may need to contact the company for permission to use their logo in your work.

➤ A practical guide to media editing provides further information on sourcing free-to-use and openly-licensed images for your thesis.

Journal-style theses

If you are preparing a journal-style thesis incorporating existing papers or chapters then you will need to consider any issues around third-party copyright ownership with your publishers and any co-authors. For full guidance on this, see York Graduate Research School: Copyright, licensing and publication in a journal-style thesis.

Using copyright material in a publication

Regardless of applicable legal exceptions, your publisher may take a cautious approach towards the inclusion of copyrighted material in your work - articles, chapters or books. They may set a word limit for text quotations and will most likely ask you to obtain written clearance from a rights holder to reproduce images and substantial excerpts of material (see When you need to seek permission)

It is good practice to plan ahead and to keep and maintain records of any third-party copyright material you are considering including in your publication.

➤ A practical guide to media editing provides further information on sourcing free-to-use and openly-licensed images to illustrate your publications.

➤ Further advice for UKRI-funded monograph authors is provided in UKRI: Managing third-party copyright for research publications

Considerations for Text and Data Mining (TDM)

TDM is an area of computational research that looks for patterns of meaning in large datasets. A 2014 legal exception (CDPA S.29A) enables researchers to make copies of copyrighted material for the purposes of computational analysis. This is provided that they have lawful access to the work(s), their research is for a non-commercial purpose and the copied work(s) are not transferred or made available to anyone else without authorisation from the rights holder. 

Some publishers and content providers offer a licence-based approach which formalises the right to analyse their content via a dedicated API whilst applying reasonable measures to maintain their network security or stability. Such measures should not unreasonably restrict a reasearcher's ability to conduct TDM, but may carry requirements around how data can be stored and shared. Permissions will normally be restricted to authorised users only, which will have implications if you are working with collaborators external to the University. (Note that the University has not purchased any such TDM licences for its users).

➤ Further support on TDM for staff and students can be found in Data: a Practical Guide.

Considerations for using generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools

There is currently no legal framework in the UK around copyright considerations for large language models (LLMs) or other generative AI tools or systems. These tools analyse uploaded text, data and other material for training purposes, retaining information and creating new ‘derivative’ works in response to prompts provided by users. In most cases, there is no acknowledgement provided to the rights holders of the source material, as this would be practically impossible due to the scale of training data used (potentially millions of individual works). There is also uncertainty as to whether the processes involved in training AI tools be even considered ‘copying’ in a legal sense.

The aforementioned legal exception for TDM is unlikely to apply when using copyright material to train AI tools, unless the researcher has developed a tool themselves for non-commercial purposes, and neither the training material nor generated outputs are made accessible to the public. 

Any original prompts you input into a generative AI tool may qualify for copyright protection. The end-user licence agreement for an AI tool should also clarify ownership of any rights that exist in generated outputs (the company who created the tool, or the user providing the prompt to create the output), however there is uncertainty as to whether AI-generated works display sufficient originality to qualify for copyright protection. 

Emerging case law (court decisions) and the UK Government's open consultation on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence (Dec 2024-Feb 2025) may help clarify some of the challenges and uncertainties here. In the meantime, many publishers and content providers are including restrictive AI clauses in their licences, which raises the risk of large-scale infringement if resources accessed through the Library are used with AI tools. 

In terms of University-level recommendations,  IT Services guidance on generative AI tools advises that "You must not upload any copyrighted content, including journals, to any GenAI tools unless you have confirmed this is acceptable with the publisher". The separate guidance provided for staff, for taught students, and for postgraduate researchers also highlight the potential risks of copyright infringment.

➤ Further guidance and considerations on the ethical use of generative AI tools can be found in Digital Creativity: a Practical Guide
➤ Researchers will shortly be provided with guidelines for the acceptable use of generative AI in the research process, overseen by the University Research Committee Task and Finish Group (last updated December 2024)

Gaining permission

If you wish to re-use somebody else's copyrighted material, and it is not covered by an open licence or any of the legal exceptions detailed here, then you should consider contacting the rights holder for permission.

If the material has been taken from a book or journal then it is best to contact the publisher for advice in the first instance. Some publishers and organisations offer a dedicated service to process permission requests or may link you to an intermediary permissions service such as PLSclear and CCC Marketplace. 

Be prepared to negotiate a fee and accept the terms and conditions set by the rights holder. Reaching an agreement may depend on your intended use:

• Do you need to copy the whole work or an extract?
• What's the size of the potential audience for your copy?
• How long will your copy remain in circulation?
• Will anyone make any money from your copy? 
• Will your copy be distributed under the terms of an open licence which permits further distribution and/or reuse (e.g Creative Commons)

You should only proceed with reusing the material if you receive a positive response from the rights holder (a lack of response does not mean that permission is granted). If the rights holder grants you permission then it is good practice to acknowledge this in your work and to retain a record of your correspondence.

Note that the Library does not provide a permissions-clearance service or specific expertise or funding in this area. If you are writing for publication then your publisher may be able to offer guidance (but are unlikely to cover your clearance fees). Further guidance is also available from these external sources:

➤ Managing third-party copyright for research publications is a guide for UKRI-funded monograph authors which addresses considerations and strategies for obtaining clearance from rightsholders

➤ The Society of Authors provides a Guide to Copyright and Permissions with information about how to trace rights holders,  how to describe your intended use, and what to expect in the way of fees and conditions.

➤ Watch (Writers, Artists and Their Copyright Holders) is "a database of copyright contacts for writers, artists and prominent figures in other creative fields", maintained by the University of Reading and the University of Texas at Austin. The partner service Fob (Firms Out of Business) provides information about publishing concerns and literacy agencies no longer operational.

Working with publishers

You should always check the terms of your publishing agreement so that you understand what rights you retain as the author of the work. The nature of such agreements varies between publishers, but authors are typically required to either transfer away their copyright or agree to an exclusive licence allowing the publisher to distribute their work.

If you are co-authoring a manuscript, then the corresponding author will usually be asked to sign any publishing agreements on behalf of all the authors. All authors should discuss any concerns about copyright or licensing before such agreements are signed off. 

Several major publishers have also announced deals licensing their publications to technology developers for use as AI training data, a controversial practice which varies in terms of the approach taken and whether authors can opt out. This Ithaka S+R Generative AI Licensing Agreement Tracker may be of interest to authors working with such publishers. 

Open access publishing

You may still be asked to sign a copyright transfer agreement when publishing your work open access, although there has been a widespread shift towards authors being allowed to retain their copyright and permit reuse by others under the terms of Creative Commons licences. The University's Research Publications and Open Access Policy also supports University staff in retaining their rights to make accepted manuscripts of schoarly articles available open access under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.

➤ Open Access Publishing: a Practical Guide covers the practices and principles underlying open access, including routes towards publication for journal articles, books and chapters, and policies set out by research funders and the University.

➤ Creative Commons for Researchers: a Practical Guide covers the range of Creative Commons legal tools available and the benefits and considerations for both creators and users of licensed works. 

 ➤ Jisc has produced guidance (Nov 2023) on copyright and Creative Commons for UKRI-funded authors writing for publication.

Social sharing and preprint sites

You should only share the published version of your work on your personal site, social media or scholarly networks if permitted by your publisher or if your work is under an open licence such as Creative Commons.

The terms of service for scholarly networks such as ResearchGate and Academia.edu state that the profile owner is responsible for ensuring that they have permission to share copyrighted material. There should be no such restrictions for authors when it comes to uploading the submitted (non peer-reviewed) version of a paper on a recognised preprint repository such as arXiv.org or a personal website, but your publisher may have a specific policy on this type of sharing.

Social networks and platforms may also assert some rights to re-use the material you upload or create. This can include uncompensated commercial use and training artificial intelligence and machine learning models (see for example, X: Additional information about data processing and How Meta uses information for generative AI models and features). There may or may not be an option to opt out of such re-use in your user settings. 

Contributing to a conference or event

If you present your research at a conference or event then you retain ownership of your ideas and content in your presentation. However, the event organisers may claim ownership of any recordings they produce, which they may want to share with attendees or on public platforms such as YouTube. Organisers should seek your permission in advance and explain how and where recordings and materials such as presentation slides will be disseminated. 

Be aware that utilising other people’s work without their permission at a conference or public event (including an open lecture held on campus) could potentially breach their copyright. The fair dealing exceptions which allow you to use extracts of copyrighted work for educational or non-commercial research purposes may not apply in the wider context of a conference or public event. You should consider asking rights holders for permission to use their material in your presentation or look for openly-licensed alternatives.

➤ A practical guide to media editing provides further information on sourcing free-to-use and openly-licensed images for presentations.

Organising a conference or event

If you are organising an event then you should ask your speakers to confirm that they have obtained clearance to use any third-party material contained in their presentations. If the event will be recorded then you should also obtain their consent and explain how the recording will be used and how materials such as presentation slides and conference proceedings will be disseminated.

The University's Audio Visual team take the view that conferences streamed online are to be considered 'public broadcasts', and that transmitting third-party content without consent could violate the terms and conditions of the University's account with Zoom. Event recordings will also be subject to the Privacy Notice for photography and video.

➤ The Audio Visual Wiki outlines many considerations involved in organising events, with helpful case studies.

Data, Software and other Intellectual Property (IP)

Factual data may not qualify for copyright protection by itself, but the original selection and arrangement of material in your database may be protected if creative effort has been put into its creation. A database and its contents may also be protected by sui generis database rights within the UK (as distinct from copyright protection) if substantial investment has been put into obtaining, verifying or presenting the data (see IPO Guidance on sui generis database rights for further details). 

➤ Research Data Management: a Practical Guide provides guidance on archiving, sharing and licensing research data and software and computer code you create whilst you are studying or under employment at the University. 

➤ The Research and Knowledge Exchange Contracts office also offers advice about registering and protecting other aspects of your IP, including patents, trademarks and design rights.