Universities have established copyright policies and guidelines to protect and prevent misuse of creative and innovative works produced by faculty, researchers and students. Student research accomplishment in the format of a thesis or dissertation to satisfy a graduation requirement represent a major proportion of campus copyright concern, and academic libraries must respond to student questions about copyright and intellectual property, sometimes offering specific library instruction or advice on the potential choices that students will have in controlling the copyright of their work or potentially assigning their ownership or copyright to a non-university publisher. Copyright has social, financial and moral implications. While writing a thesis or dissertation, students frequently use images, materials, and may upload or download research papers without considering copyright rules or restrictions, including the use of copyright materials without giving attribution or obtaining permission. What are the rights and responsibilities of students as content creators of their thesis? Who owns their research work, if not the student?
This paper intends to review (i) the copyright policies for thesis adopted by world class universities and (ii) copyright guidelines developed by the libraries of these universities.
The published Times Higher Education Ranking 2020 was accessed, and the top 50 universities were used as the basis for our research investigation. The top 50 ranked university websites were accessed between June 1 and June 30th, and copyright policies and other evidence of how these universities established student thesis ownership, publishing and embargo period of thesis or waiver agreements. We also located the copyright guidelines developed by the libraries of these universities and observed the extent of education materials covered by them for preparing students in thesis writing, such as writing tools and thesis submission guidelines. We recorded the data in the Google Sheet which includes the link to their copyright policies and link to copyright guidelines developed by university libraries. The data was analysed to calculate and present frequency and percentage.
This paper intends to show that university copyright policies are not uniform with respect to ownership of thesis. At most universities the thesis is owned by students with a non-exclusive copy presented for university dissemination and publication. Some universities represent different clauses for transfer of rights for different types of research. In some universities copyright is covered under Intellectual Property Right policies while at other places there is a standalone policy. At many universities, copyright for the scholarly thesis is given distinct attention. Copyright Policies appear in different formats, such as pdf document, html web pages, or published manual. Copyright in universities is being taken care of by different divisions, such as intellectual property office, scholarly communications office, or university legal department.
While copyright guidelines developed by university libraries present general advice on fair use, creative commons licensing, local protocols for thesis deposit, and transfer of rights, it can also be observed that some universities offer little published guidance, demonstrating a cautious minimalist approach when advising students what to do.
Keywords: copyright, intellectual property, thesis, dissertation, universities

Copyright Policies and Guidelines for Thesis in Universities

Join us for ETD2021 (Electronic Theses and Dissertations) Conference in November 2021 in the United Arab Emirates.

Our theme, ‘Open scholarship in a post-pandemic world’ addresses the enhanced need for discoverability of research findings in a virtual world.

Since the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has constrained international travel and mobility, we have all come to rely on working in the virtual world. These developments have merely accelerated the existing trends towards more electronic and digital repositories.

Since 1991, the Networked Digital Libraries of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) have contributed to research collaboration by identifying and aggregating digital repositories of theses and dissertations as a previously fugitive class of research resources.

 ETD 2021 Conference: Open scholarship in a post-pandemic world

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