Getting started with Copyright - A guide to using images in your research publications - transcript

This is a transcript of the video "Getting started with Copyright - A guide to using images in your research publications", hosted on YouTube.

Transcript

[Title screen 1] Getting started with Copyright; a guide to using images in your research publications

[Katya Henry] I'm Katya Henry and I'm the University Copyright Officer. To understand how we can use images, we first need to understand a bit about copyright. So put simply, copyright is the automatic legal protection given to all work which we create in a material form.

So, it is the protection given to the expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves. Copyright gives the creator the exclusive rights to copy, communicate, use and adapt their work. And it applies to a number of formats, not just textual works. It also applies to images which may include photographs, figures, charts, a graph, or even tables.

It is important to bear in mind that any image in a journal article, a book, or even found online has copyright in its own right. And the right to reproduce or communicate an image belongs to the copyright holder. Copyright law strikes a balance between the rights and rewards for the creators, as well as the interests of users of copyrighted works, those who seek to use existing works to build and create new works.

[TITLE SCREEN 2] Using someone else's image

To use someone else's image in your own publication, it is important that you seek permission from the copyright holder to include this image. The copyright holder may be the creator, or it might be the publisher.

If you are adapting or making a derivative of an image, it may still be necessary to obtain this permission. Even if your image differs substantially from the original, the creator still holds the intellectual property in the idea behind the image. It's always important to attribute the original creator.

When submitting your own article for publication, it is usually the publisher who will determine if you will need to obtain this permission from the original copyright owner. If in doubt, contact the Copyright Officer. Email qut.copyright@qut.edu.au.

[TITLE SCREEN 3] How do you protect your own images?

So how do you protect your own images? In any article there will be copyright in component of the work. So there will be copyright in the text but also copyright in any images. When you are signing a publishing agreement or even before then - when you are submitting your manuscript for publication - you may be required to transfer the copyright in your article to the publisher. This will include the copyright in the text as well as any images in your publication. It is important to read the terms of the agreement thoroughly and carefully, as this transfer of rights can have a significant impact on how you may use your own work in the future. Note too that you may also request a change to the terms of the agreement.

So if you have indeed transferred all of your copyright to the publisher, you may need to request permission to use any images you have created for future publications. Sometimes the publisher will grant this permission, sometimes the publisher may grant this permission only once, sometimes the publisher will charge you to use your image, and there have also been cases where the publisher has simply refused permission.

[TITLE SCREEN 4] Publishing your images with an open licence

So before submitting your manuscript for publication, it is important to consider how you might wish to use any figures, images, charts, or tables that you have created. If you publish in an Open Access journal, you will usually retain your copyright and may reuse this content in other publications.

Another way of protecting your copyright in your images is to first publish them with an open licence, such as a Creative Commons licence, prior to submitting your article for publication. Licensing your work with a Creative Commons licence tells others how you would like your work to be used, without the need for users to seek permission.

There are 6 different Creative Commons licences which grant varying degrees of permission to users, from CC-BY (Creative Commons Attribution) which requires attribution only, to combinations of Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, or ShareAlike, which require others to apply the same CC licence. All Creative Commons licences require attribution so it is a great way to get your research known and cited.

To publish your images with a Creative Commons (or CC) licence, you simply need to make them available on an open repository, such as Figshare, or QUT's own Research Data Finder. You could even publish them on your own website with a CC licence. When using these images in a publication, you would simply attribute them as you would any other image. And the permission has been granted to you (and others) by means of the CC licence.

This means that the copyright in your images is still retained by you, even if the copyright in the text is transferred to the publisher, and you can safely use your images for any future purposes.

[TITLE SCREEN 5] QUT Copyright guide

You can find guidance about publishing and publishing images on the QUT Copyright Guide and on HiQ or the Digital Workplace, and take a look at QUT's Intellectual Property Policy also, but if you have any questions about Creative Commons licensing, how you can use other images, or anything to do with copyright at all, remember you can also get in touch with me at qut.copyright@qut.edu.au.

[QUT outro graphic] Produced for QUT Library

Music supplied under Creative Commons licence: Bensound-"perspectives"

[End video]