Copyright Ownership of Student Work
Copyright protects original works and prevents other people from copying or reusing a work without the copyright owner’s permission. This includes work created by University staff and students.
Copyright does not protect ideas. To qualify for protection the idea must be fixed in some format. As soon as it is fixed, for example in the case of a literary work by writing it down, copyright arises automatically. Unlike patents or trademarks there isn’t a process for registering copyright in the UK.
The first owner of copyright is normally the creator, except for works created in the course of employment where copyright is owned by the employer unless otherwise agreed.
Students will normally own the copyright to any work created during their course of study unless requested to assign copyright, as part of a research project for example. This means that permission is usually required to use a student’s work. Arrangements are different for postgraduate research students.
Copyright ownership for postgraduate research students
Postgraduate research students are required when they register to assign or transfer the rights in commercially exploitable intellectual property such as inventions that may be protectable by patent to the University in return for a share in royalties. They will normally own copyright in scholarly works however, including their thesis or dissertation.
More information on assigning IP and Royalty Sharing arrangements can be found within the Research Code of Practice (clause 6) and Research Code of Practice for postgraduate research students (pages 9, 10) (both can be found under 'Research policies and guidelines').
Copyright in thesis
If you are a postgraduate research student you will continue to own the copyright in your thesis, provided you haven’t assigned it elsewhere. Under University Regulations all final theses must be deposited in an open access institutional repository through which theses are made publicly available to download. The repository for theses at Strathclyde is called STAX and a thesis will only be accepted into STAX when the degree of which it forms part has been fully awarded by the University of Strathclyde.
If you wish to publish your thesis (after examination) you will need to seek permission from the copyright owner for any third party content you have included unless there is a clear statement on the work saying it can be reused or you can justify including it under a copyright exception. This includes depositing it in STAX as this is publicly accessible.
If the publication of your thesis may prejudice a patent application or otherwise disclose information the University considers confidential, you may be required to add a moratorium to your thesis for a limited time to protect the information. This means it will not normally be accessible to staff, students or the public.
Contact Us: ictlegalcompliance@strath.ac.uk if you'd like to know more or consult our Copyright & Your Thesis Libguide.