Copyright and plagiarism

Copyright is the legal right that the creator(s) of a work have, i.e., the right to determine how the work may be used. Copyright applies automatically and no registration is required. Virtually all material used in teaching or research is protected by copyright. The copyright period generally lasts for the creator’s lifetime plus 70 years.

Financial and intellectual rights

Researchers have the right to determine how their research publications may be used. Copyright consists of two components: financial and intellectual rights. Financial rights entitle the creator of a work to publish or disseminate the work in question. Financial rights are usually transferred to the publishers when work is published in academic journals or books. Intellectual rights entail that users of a work have to acknowledge the copyright holder when citing a work and that they may not distort a work.

Read more: Copyright law

Publication agreements

Conditions for use are stipulated in a publication agreement. It is important to take note of how an article may be used before and after publication. There are a number of international agreement templates, as for example the SPARC Author Addendum, which may assist you in creating your own addendum to the publication agreement in accordance with your needs.

Open Access

By publishing Open Access you can retain copyright and the right to determine the use of your material, while simultaneously fulfilling the funding organisations’ requirements. Use the SHERPA/RoMEO service to view publishers’ guidelines and different Open Access options.

Creative commons

The simplest way for a researcher to publish research results open access is by using a Creative Commons licence (CC licence). Creative Commons supply different degrees of licenses that specify in what ways others are allowed to use your work, and most Open Access publishers will automatically assign a CC license to articles.

Choose a Creative Commons licence.

Read more: Creative Commons for researchers

Using material produced by others

As a researcher and copyright holder you have the right to use material produced by others, under certain conditions. Images, photographs, illustrations, tables, etc. are protected by copyright and it is important to obtain the necessary permission if you use material produced by others in your publication.

Read more: Images and copyright

Guidance on plagiarism

This guide can be used as support when you, as a researcher or doctoral student at Kau, are subjected to plagiarism. The possibilities for plagiarism increase with the digital spread of published works, however, the possibility of detecting plagiarism also increases.

As a researcher or doctoral student, you have the support of your faculty and your department. Support or information can also be provided by the university library and the university legal team.

If you are the copyright holder, you can raise the issue of suspected plagiarism by informing the head of your department and the dean of your faculty. If you are a doctoral student, you should also inform your supervisor.
The faculty can provide you with support when reviewing the case. The university library can contribute with information, for example which publication channel published the suspected plagiarism. If it turns out to be plagiarism, the matter should be further investigated and the vice-chancellor informed. It is then assessed on a case-by-case basis who should be responsible for further actions and what those actions should be.
Once you have reviewed the case, you should notify the publisher that published your work about the suspected plagiarism. Publishers protect their own and the authors’ rights and may have their own procedures for plagiarism cases.