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Copyright: Students - study and research

Provides students with information on responsibilities around copying other peoples' work for the purpose of study and research.

Using other peoples' work in your thesis

Did you know that placing a copy of your thesis on the internet is considered publishing your thesis?

Your work will most likely contain images, quotations, graphs, and extracts from other publications that you have used to support your arguments, and you will need to seek permission from the copyright owner of each image, quote, graph, or extract that you have used throughout your work prior to publishing it online in the University's Open Access Repository, ResearchOnline@ND.

If you do not have permission to use copyright material then it will have to be redacted in your published thesis. It can still be included in your thesis for examination.

Beginning your thesis

At the start of your candidature you should make yourself familiar with Australian Copyright Laws if you intend to use any significant or important portion of work belonging to somebody else.

The basic rule is that you may not copy any significant or important portion of work belonging to somebody else without the copyright holder's permission. 

You do not need permission to use:

  • An insubstantial portion of a work (e.g. short quotes)
  • Copyright material that falls under the fair use provision for criticism and review.
  • Creative Commons material (but state licence & include attribution)
  • Works where copyright has expired & is in the public domain.

For the works that you may use, you are required to contact the copyright owner(s) seeking their permission. This should be planned ahead of time and you should keep careful records of any communication.