Being a publisher

You may find yourself in the role of publisher if you manage a website, maintain a personal website, edit a journal, issue conference proceedings, or undertake any other kind of publishing activity. If distribution of your material is restricted to QUT staff and students only, then you should refer to the Teaching support section of this guide.

As a publisher, you must make sure you have the permission of the copyright owner for each and every work (article, paper, book, photograph, map, video, sound file etc) that you plan to include in your website or other publication. Permissions must be obtained in writing - email is acceptable - and filed for future reference. Relying on a verbal permission is very risky; and don't rely on assurances from someone other than the copyright owner.

Don't overlook student copyright owners - work produced by a student is protected by copyright and as a general rule the owner is the student, unless there is a written agreement to the contrary. So even if you want to showcase student work in a University website or publication, you still need to get permission.

In dealing with authors' works, you also have an obligation to respect their moral rights. Moral rights are personal rights that still belong to an author even if the copyright in the work belongs to someone else. For more information on moral rights consult the section Moral rights in this guide.

If you are establishing a website or other publishing operation, or organizing a conference, you should have a publication agreement with your authors and other contributors. You need to obtain sufficient rights and assurances from them to ensure the ongoing viability of your publication. For further advice, consult the University Copyright Officer.

The University has policies governing content and presentation of web pages hosted by QUT. Consult the Web Pages and Servers Policy