Copyright and research activity

Monash University has specific policies (within an Intellectual Property Framework), governing the ownership of intellectual property arising from research activity.

The University Solicitor's Office, in conjunction with the Office of Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research), manages issues relating to intellectual property ownership and contractual matters relating to the University's research activity. For further information on ownership of copyright by Monash, contracts involving intellectual property; Monash IP policies, Statutes and Regulations, contact the Deputy University Solicitor, Glenda Beecher.

For students

For staff researchers

As well as creating intellectual property, research activity frequently involves using or reproducing content created by others. That means researchers need to be aware of how best to manage copyright issues, not only with regard to the intellectual property arising from their own research findings, but also in regard to any third-party content used in the research activity and included in research output.

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Using third-party content

Third party content is basically any content not of your own creation: content presented in journal articles ('pre-print' or published), books, online blogs or discussions, research papers; all kinds of data; archival records; images, graphs, animations; source code; video footage; sound files... All of these items could be protected by copyright in different ways.

In some cases third-party content may be out of copyright

chart: duration of copyright

And some content may be available under flexible or open licence terms (but always be aware of the full terms and conditions attached to any licence).

For content which is still within copyright and not available under an open licence, a researcher can rely on a special provision in the Copyright Act known as 'Fair Dealing' for the use of third-party content during the actual process of conducting research.

More about Fair Dealing

Be aware, however, that the ultimate publication or broad distribution of third-party content embedded within research output is not considered a 'Fair Dealing'.

In most cases, researchers will then need to secure copyright permissions for any third-party content included within research destined for publication or broad dissemination.

Tips on seeking permission
Oak Law project publications: Understanding Open Access in the Academic Environment: A Guide for Authors (2008, PDF 1.5 MB)
of related interest: 'Copyright in Higher Education', SURF Foundation (2008) (note however that some details on this site are specific to the European legal jurisdiction, not Australian law)

The Resources and downloads page on this site also has some sample permission letters.

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For students

In most cases, students retain copyright in any coursework they create during their degree.

Where an academic staff member wishes to make use of a student's work in their own teaching (ie as a demonstration piece for other students) the staff member needs to seek permission, preferably in writing, from the student to make that use of their work.

For certain post-graduate degrees, the University may make assignment of copyright or licensing of intellectual property a condition of the degree. An agreement would be made in accordance with the University Statues and Regulations.

Refer to the Students page > copyright and research students