Copyright FAQs

If you are completing a dissertation or report, you have the option to registering your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office when you submit your work to ProQuest. The fee for this service through ProQuest is $55.00.

While copyright protection is automatic once your work is in a format that may be perceived by others (i.e. a tangible form), there are certain benefits to registering a work with the U.S. Copyright Office. According to the U.S. Copyright office (Circular 01) these are: 

• Registration creates a public record relating to the authorship and ownership of a work, essentially a claim of ownership. This may be helpful if the copyright is infringed by another party.
• Registration is required before any infringement suit can be filed in U.S. courts. 
• Registration establishes "prima facia" evidence of the validity of copyright. This means if the copyright ownership is challenged, the burden of proof falls to the party challenging the ownership.
• If a work is registered prior to an infringement case being brought, the copyright holder is eligible for statutory damages, attorney fees and cost if they win their case.
• Registration also allows the owner to create a record with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to prevent importation of infringing copies.

ProQuest will register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office for a fee. However you can register your own work directly with the U.S. Copyright Office. The cost of registering your work directly with the U.S. Copyright Office is $35.00. If you are completing a report and wish to register your copyright, you will need to do so directly with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Again, official registration with the U.S. Copyright office is not required, but may be beneficial, especially if you think your work may be subject to infringement (i.e. others may want to copy, distribute, create a derivative, or perform your work.) Even if you elect to make your work open access on the University's repository, the work is still protected by copyright and registration may be considered.

The information regarding fees in this FAQ was current as of June 11, 2019.

Usually. The student who wrote the thesis or dissertation owns the copyright and must be asked for permission. Figures are generally considered works in and of themselves and do not usually constitute a small portion of the work. See "How to Use Copyrighted Materials" for more information. 

If, however, the figure is a simple representation of data, you may not need permission.  Data cannot be copyrighted, so non-creative ways of representing the data are generally considered fair use.

Usually. Your advisor cannot grant you permission to use material since the publisher now owns the copyright. See "How to Use Copyrighted Materials" for more information.

If, however, the figure is a simple representation of data, you may not need permission.  Data cannot be copyrighted, so non-creative ways of representing the data are generally considered fair use.

Usually. Unless you have retained the rights to the article, the publisher now owns the copyright and only the publisher can grant permission. See "How to Use Copyrighted Materials" for more information.

If, however, the figure is a simple representation of data, you may not need permission.  Data cannot be copyrighted, so non-creative ways of representing the data are generally considered fair use.

Usually. When you sign the copyright transfer agreement, you transfer the copyright to the publisher. Some publishers allow you to retain certain rights, which might include reprinting the article in a thesis. Either way, you should document that you have permission to use the article or have retained the right to publish the article. See " How to Use Copyrighted Materials" for more information.

Usually. All webpages are copyrighted, and most have a legal notices page that details their policies and procedures. Material on the web - although easy to get - is still copyrighted in the same way as a book or journal article. See "How to Use Copyrighted Materials" for more information.

It depends. If you published any of the material in a journal or book, you will need to abide by the copyright transfer agreement you signed with the publisher. If the material has not been published elsewhere, you retain the copyright to your thesis, and do not have to ask permission.

Most publishers respond quickly to requests for permission. Publishers, however, are under no obligation to respond. If they don't respond, your best course of action is to remove the material from your thesis or dissertation.

Yes. The photographer owns the copyright to the image, assuming that it is an original composition. It does not matter if the material has been published or not. You should give credit to the photographer in the caption of the figure and obtain a permission letter.

It depends. If you took a photograph of your own original composition, then you own the copyright to that photograph, and permission is not needed.  If, however, you take a photograph of someone else's work, it is similar to making a photocopy, and you will need to document that you can reuse that material in your work.

For example, if I take a photograph of the Mona Lisa (a very famous painting!), I probably don't have the ability to reprint that photograph.  If, however, my photograph is of the Mona Lisa with people looking at the painting, and the composition of that photo is unique and creative, then I can likely argue that the photograph is something I can use in my work.

It depends. Significant modifications result in a figure that is uniquely yours. The source of the inspiration or base of the figure must be acknowledged in your caption. To clarify the source and figure creator, we recommend a credit line in your caption similar to, "Figure adapted by author from SOURCE." where SOURCE would be replaced with an appropriate citation. If the figure is just a tracing of the original figure, or does not contain a significant amount of creativity, you have not created it, and must ask for permission.

No. Data cannot be copyrighted, so you are free to use data to create any figure you like. The source of the data must be properly acknowledged, however, and a plain citation can cause the reader to believe that the figure (and not just the data) was taken from the source. To clarify confusion and properly identify the source and figure creator, we recommend a credit line in your caption similar to, "Figure created by author from data in SOURCE." where SOURCE would be replaced with an appropriate citation.

Fair use is complicated, and in reality, the courts determine if your use is fair. Putting copyrighted material in a thesis or dissertation is not the same as photocopying an article, or using a figure from the internet for a paper submitted to a professor for class. Things that are definitely not fair use include long quotations, whole journal articles and most figures from any source. Additional information can be found in the Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis publication prepared by ProQuest.

Unless figures are truly in the public domain, US Copyright Law protects images and words from any source from being copied into your thesis or dissertation. The same laws protect you against others copying your work and placing it in their documents without your permission. If you are the author of the journal article, consult the copyright transfer agreement you signed to see what rights you retained as an author. If you are not the author of the material, contact the publisher to obtain permission to use the material. Most publishers have a form that can be filled out on their webpage to request permission. Please see our copyright page for more information about how to request and document permission to use materials in your thesis or dissertation.

US Copyright Law does allow limited use of copyrighted material under the "fair use" doctrine. This permits you to use limited portions of copyrighted material in any document you publish. Please see the Copyright Office FAQ to assist you in determining if the work you want to use is considered fair use, or if you need to ask permission. Typically, quotations of less than one page are considered fair use, but reproduction of a figure from a journal or webpage is not.