Help with copyright

Staff in the University Library are available to assist with copyright information and to provide advice on depositing of research and scholarly works into the NOVA open access repository:

Copyright Officer
University of Newcastle

NOVA Repository Team
University Library

Copyright ownership

The copyright owner retains all copyright ownership rights under copyright law and grants the University a non-exclusive right to store and use content deposited in the repository.

Information for contributors

Under the terms of the NOVA Deposit Licence only those with the authority to do so may deposit material into the repository. Responsibility for ensuring that the copyrights of others, including publishers and individuals, are not infringed rests with the person making the deposit.

Information for users

You may copy whole papers for your personal non-commercial use subject to the copyright laws of the country in which you reside, providing the material is properly attributed. If the material is required for any other purpose, you should contact the author or publisher direct as requests of this nature are not processed through this repository.

Metadata rights

Harvesting full-text documents from this repository is not permitted; however, metadata can be harvested by third parties for purposes related to the discovery of the archive's contents.

Referencing content from this repository

If the version of the paper you accessed from the repository, is the author's accepted manuscript, you should indicate this when referencing the material. For example:

Author/s. Year. Article title, Journal title. volume, issue, pages. [Authors version]. Accessed on [Date] [The direct link to the record within the repository, i.e. our persistent identifier].

Records within the repository will endeavour to include a link to the publisher's site, wherever possible, for your referral to the published version.

Do you think your copyright has been infringed?

If you believe copyright work that is available on this site constitutes copyright infringement or a breach of agreed licence or contract, please use the Takedown Notice Form available on the University's copyright page. This form is designed for you to provide sufficient information for our investigation and response.

Managing your copyright - information for authors

Review the publisher's policy on self-archiving

It is common for journal publishers to routinely ask authors to assign copyright to the publisher. However many publishers also allow authors to retain the right to self-archive a copy of the author's post-print version in their institutional repository. Details relating to this information can usually be found on the journal's website as information for authors/contributors.

The SHERPA/RoMEO web site provides a list of a range of publisher policies.

Author Addendums

It's a good idea to check the conditions of a publisher's contract before you sign it.

Several websites including SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and the Science Commons can help you with wording to add to the contract, allowing you to also put your work into a repository, rather than assigning all rights in full to the publisher.

For example the Science Common's Scholar's Copyright Project has a tool, the scholar's copyright addendum engine which helps authors to generate a PDF form that can be attached to a journal publisher's copyright agreement.

SPARC also has an online addendum tool to assist authors.

Publishers are encountering this more often as open access institutional repositories gain momentum around the world.

FAQs

What is the purpose of NOVA?

NOVA is the University of Newcastle's Digital Repository and has been implemented to provide an open access portal to showcase scholarly and research output of the University of Newcastle. The content of NOVA is made accessible to the global research community and is discoverable via the Internet. NOVA will capture, store, index, preserve and redistribute the university's scholarly research in digital formats. This will highlight the overall research profile of the University as well as assist in maximising the impact for researchers.

Who can access NOVA?

NOVA is an 'open access' repository which can be freely accessed via the Internet and anyone with access to the Internet.

What type of material can be deposited Into NOVA?

Material deposited into NOVA should not infringe copyright. Material should be of a research or scholarly nature, examples includes digital copies of:

• Journal articles
• Conference papers
• Books and book chapters
• Theses
• Working papers
• Discussion papers
• Technical reports
• Images
• Datasets
• Multimedia
• Representations of creative works
• Other material produced by staff or students that has been approved by the relevant Pro-Vice Chancellor or Head of School or their nominee

Other formats of material may be acceptable. Contact the Coordinator, Scholarly Publishing for further inquiries.

What material is excluded from being deposited in NOVA?

Material that infringes copyright is excluded from inclusion in the repository. And in addition :

• Material intended for commercialisation
• Material of a confidential nature
• Materials which, if disseminated by the repository would infringe a legal obligation of the University and/or the author(s) or the legal right of a third party
• Teaching material
• Administrative material

Why should I put my published materials in the repository - they're already publicly available in a journal?

In the first place it's easy to do, and once it's done, you know your work will be secure in the University's repository for years to come, with no issues of backups and maintenance. Should a colleague request copies of your scholarly materials, you simply give them the URL- there's no need to attach documents to emails.

In addition your online publications in the repository have the potential to receive a wider readership as access is freely available via the Internet, no passwords are required and no subscriptions costs are associated.

I already have my papers on my department web site. Can I put them into the repository as well?

Yes. Depositing your publications into NOVA is a good idea as the repository undertakes to maintain a link to your paper in a readable format into the future, and Google gives preferential treatment to materials in institutional repositories. This means your paper will appear higher up on the Google results list. Of course you'll still be able to link to the IR from the page you maintain in your department.

What about copyright?

It is common for authors to assign copyright to publishers in regard to their commercially published articles and conference papers. If you wish to deposit your research into NOVA, Library staff will assist you by determining the publisher's policy for deposit to the institutional repository. If the published version of your work cannot be made available within the repository it may be possible to expose a post-print copy (the author's accepted manuscript version after peer review and editorial processes).

One of the following will need to apply before you can deposit the work into the repository:

1. you as the author retain copyright ownership, or
2. you have transferred your copyright ownership to the publisher however you have retained the right to deposit a version of your work into an institutional repository, or
3. permission to deposit has subsequently been granted by the publisher.

Doesn't the publisher own the copyright in my published works?

Some publishers allow authors to deposit the post-print version of their publication into an insitutional open access reposity, or we can link to the published version of the work on the publisher's web site.
The 'Sherpa' project provides a searchable database of publisher policies regarding and threir permission policies. For conferences, we suggest contacting the publisher of the conference proceedings directly.

What is a 'pre-print' and a 'post-print'?

A pre-print is the author's version of an academic paper which is submitted by the author to the publisher for peer review. This version does not incorporate any potential changes arising from the peer review process, ie. does not incorporate feedback and comments made by the reviewers.
A post-print is the author's final accepted version of an academic paper (or conference paper) which incorporates the revisions made by the author as a result of the peer review and editorial process; or as accepted for publication if no changes were made through the peer review process.

What formats are acceptable for the repository?

Almost all types of digital format can be submitted, including images and multimedia formats. However, we have determined that only certain formats can be supported; that is we are undertaking to keep them readable. These include formats such as PDF, Postscript, plain text, HTML, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, and AIFF (for sound).

Who can help me with Copyright?

The University Copyright Officer can assist you with information regarding copyright issues. Repository staff within the Library can also assist you in determining the policies of publisher's with regard to their copyright agreements with authors.