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Copyright Guide

This guide will help you to find out how copyright affects your study, research and work here at the University of Derby. Please note that information on these pages is for guidance only: it should not be construed as formal legal advice.

Your thesis at the University of Derby

After your thesis has been passed by the examiners, you must submit an electronic copy of your thesis to the University of Derby Online Research Archive (UDORA). Your eThesis will be published under the default Creative Commons Licence CC BY NC ND 4.0. If you wish to change the choice of Creative Commons Licence, you need to contact either Donya Rowan (Copyright Officer) or Holly Limbert (Publication Practice Librarian)

 

Copyright considerations for eTheses

No permission needs to be sought when using third-party copyright material (within reason) in the thesis you submit to the examiner. This is because your thesis will only be viewed for examination purposes. 

However, permission to use third-party copyright material is needed when depositing your eThesis on UDORA. this is because content published on UDORA will be available Open Access.

  • During your research you will probably have used material by other authors, creators, or maybe even your previous work, all of these materials need to be properly referenced (including if required, links to the original and any licences used - for instance Creative Commons.  If your work does contain any such third-party material over and above Fair Dealing with Criticism and Review, then you are required to seek permission from the copyright holder to use it. See menu on the left for section copying third-party material legally and look at the sections below for more details.
  • There are other issues of compliance such as data protection, confidentiality and commercial sensitivity that must be considered when your thesis is online. 

See section How can I make my thesis more discoverable? for information about UDORA and guidance on submitting your thesis.

The documents below will help you keep your thesis legal and copyright compliant.