{"id":4172,"date":"2023-04-26T07:47:32","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T07:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/a-quick-guide-to-copyright-law-for-research-and-academic-writing\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T17:19:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:49:31","slug":"a-quick-guide-to-copyright-law-for-research-and-academic-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/a-quick-guide-to-copyright-law-for-research-and-academic-writing","title":{"rendered":"A quick guide to copyright law for research and academic writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Authors of research papers encounter copyright typically in only two situations. The first, and far more common, is signing the copyright form (in effect, giving the copyright to their manuscript to the journal\u2019s publisher) as one of the last steps before the paper is published. The second, less common, is responding to the question from an editor about whether they have acquired the permission to reproduce any figures or tables that are part of the manuscript but have been taken from other published sources.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This article shows you how to handle both the situations and explains a few basic concepts related to copyright. Please bear in mind, however, that copyright is governed by law and, as with other legal matters, you should seek expert legal advice if the situation demands it or when the stakes are high.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That said, let me also tell you at the outset that simply because an image (a photo, a diagram, a graph, etc.) can be downloaded from a web page, it does not mean that it can be inserted into another publication even with proper attribution\u2014if you do so, you may be violating copyright.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What is copyright as it relates to research papers?<\/a><\/p>\n

Principles of fair use of copyrights<\/a><\/p>\n

Versions of copyright, or types of licence for use<\/a><\/p>\n

Action points for researchers<\/a><\/p>\n

What is copyright as it relates to research papers?<\/h2>\n

Copyright is simply the right to copy, where \u201ccopy\u201d refers to material such as text, images, etc. produced by a creator. This is hardly an illuminating explanation, but it does help to make one thing clear, namely, that copyright is all about the expression<\/i> of an idea rather than the idea<\/i> itself. For example, take the methods section of a research paper, in which you describe a standard procedure, say that of estimating the iron content in a water sample. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now the procedure itself may be patented but cannot be copyrighted; on the other hand, the exact words in which you<\/i> describe that procedure is protected by copyright. This is why copyright applies to text, images, drawings, paintings, audio and video recordings, and so on but not to the ideas<\/i> conveyed by those words or images or sounds.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now, what prevents someone from taking your description of that iron-estimation method, for instance, and incorporating that, word for word, in another paper they<\/i> are writing? Or what is to prevent another journal from re-publishing your entire paper with you as its author but without your consent or knowledge?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The first instance is plagiarism (claiming some text as your own when it is not\u2014but that is a topic for another article). The second is infringement of copyright, because although the journal printed the paper with the original author\u2019s name, the journal had no right to publish it in the first place unless permitted to do so by whosoever held the copyright to that paper.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Principles of fair use of copyrights<\/h2>\n

Let us consider the second situation mentioned in the opening paragraph: you are writing a research paper and would like to reproduce, word for word, a definition given by another author. You are doing so for the purpose of commenting on that definition. So long as you put that definition within quotation marks and cite the original paper as a source, you cannot be accused of plagiarism\u2014nor, in nearly all cases, of infringing the copyright. Why? That is where the principle of fair use comes in, which simply exempts such use\u2014in other words, you do not need to obtain the copyright holder\u2019s permission \u2013 so long as it is used for criticism or commentary or scholarly purposes and<\/i> is not used for commercial ends and<\/i> constitutes only a small proportion of the total text of which the extract is part. Therefore, be wary of any advice that mentions only the length, as in \u201cup to 250 words, not a problem.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Versions of copyright, or types of licence for use<\/h2>\n

Scholarly publishing has its special situations and conditions largely because it is not pursued for profit\u2014at least not by most authors, readers, researchers, and scholars. One consideration is that most research\u2014and research papers are its tangible product\u2014is publicly funded or funded by not-for-profit entities such as foundations and charities. The following types of licences are common in scholarly publishing:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n