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Copyright: Protecting Your Own Work

Adding Copyright Notices

You may choose to add the © symbol to your work, together with your name and the year of creation, but this is optional.

Format: © [Year of creation] [Your Name]

Example: © 2024 Jane Smith

Protecting your Work Checklist

□ Add a copyright notice

□ Keep dated records of your work

□ Deposit author-accepted version to WRAP

□ Use watermarks for digital images

Protecting Your Own Work

Copyright and Intellectual Property in the outputs that you produce as a member of the University is covered by Regulation 28. This states that copyright in Scholarly Works, including text and artwork for publication in books, journal articles, papers, abstracts, theses, dissertations and creative works (such as plays and lyrics) rests with the author or creator and not with the University of Warwick.

See the full text of the regulation for other types of output, including inventions, designs, software and audiovisual materials.

 

Automatic Protection

In the UK, copyright protection is automatic as soon as you create an original work. However, there are steps you can take to strengthen your position.

Assigning Copyright to a Publisher

Copyright and Publishers

An alternative to assigning copyright is to grant a licence to publish.

In this type of arrangement, you retain copyright, but give the publisher exclusive distribution rights. This means that, once you have signed the author agreement, you would need the publisher’s permission to reproduce the work elsewhere.

For example, if you publish an article that you later want to include as a chapter in a research monograph, the publisher would need to agree to this. You can find out more about how request permission in the section on using other’s work in your own publications below.

 

Not all publishers will offer these terms, although some publishers, for example Nature and The Royal Society, use a licence to publish as standard.

Dealing with Infringement

If you believe someone has infringed your copyright:

  • Gather evidence of the infringement
  • Contact the infringer with a cease and desist notice
  • Consider seeking legal advice if the issue persists

Licensing your work

In Open Access publishing, authors usually retain copyright in the published output and a Creative Commons licence is applied. The CC licence lets anyone wishing to reuse your work what they are allowed to do with it without asking your permission.

Some research funders require a specific licence to be applied to published outputs

If you are not sure which licence to apply, there is more information at Why Open Access or contact openaccessfund@warwick.ac.uk

 

Options include:

  CC BY CC BY-SA CC BY-NC CC BY-ND CC BY-NC-SA CC BY-NC-ND
Allows Commercial use  ✓ ✓        

Allows Distribution

 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Allows Modification/Adaptation ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓  
Requires Attribution ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Requires ShareAlike   ✓ ✓  
Prohibits Derivative Works       ✓ ✓

 

Depending on your publisher’s policy, you may be able to deposit a copy of your work in the Warwick Research Archive Portal (WRAP) with a Creative Commons licence.

If someone wishes to use your work in a way not permitted by the CC BY licence, they can still ask you if you are willing to give permission, but it is up to you as the copyright holder to decide.