Copyright and Your ETD

As with all expression, copyright plays an important role in your electronic thesis and dissertation. This page will serve to guide you the various copyright issues at play in ETD.

ETD Copyright Overview
Third-party Works
Previously Published Works
Uploading Your Work
Resources

ETD Copyright Overview

Who owns the copyright in my ETD?

The copyright in all student works belongs to the student, including your ETD.

Are there copyright considerations for different parts of my ETD?

Yes. Generally speaking, an ETD is composed of three different types of content:

Original Expression - This is what you’ve written for your ETD
Third-party Works - Other people work you’ve used in your ETD
Previously Published Works - Work you have published previously and incorporated into your ETD (This is not common in all disciplines)

Each of these types of expression have different copyright implications. The most straightforward is your original expression, which is copyright to you. Third-party Works and Previously Published Works each present their own unique issues, so they will be covered in turn.

Third-party Works

Third-party works are works made by other people that you use in your dissertation. Building on the work of others is a cornerstone of academic research, and it is standard practice to use and cite works created by others. However, there are still copyright considerations in using other people’s work as part of your own. It’s important to understand what kind of use is acceptable and when permission may be needed to copy a work.

When is it okay to not get permission to use a third-party work?

Permission normally is not necessary for copying that is limited to a small portion of the work. Some examples of common situations where permission is not necessary are:

A quote that is limited to several lines.
A still frame from a movie.
A portion of a website.
Works that are in the public domain.
Works that are published under a creative commons license.

When should I get permission to use a third-party work?

If what you want to copy is the entirety of, or a significant portion of, the work, then permission will most likely be necessary.

So examples of common situations where you should get permission are:

Using a chart or figure
Using a photograph
Using large excerpts from a text

Please check out our permissions page to learn more about obtaining permission from third parties.

What is public domain?

Public domain means that the work is out of copyright, therefore there are no restrictions on how it can be used. Most works are public domain for one of two reasons:

It’s a US Government work.
The copyright has expired.

Government Works

It’s important to check if a work on a government website or published by an agency has actually been prepared by the agency. If the work was produced by a private contractor, then the work would be copyrighted to the contractor. This also does not apply to state government works, which may be copyrighted to the state. Finally, for international government works, you would need to check the copyright policies of those nations.

Expired Copyrights

Works published before January 1st of the current year minus 95 years, are all public domain. For example, Steamboat Willie by Disney was first published in 1928, which was before January 1, 1929 (2024-95) and is therefore now public domain. Works published in 1929 would still be in copyright, but starting January 1, of 2025, they would become public domain. For works published between the current year minus 95 years and 1976, the rules are quite complicated. Please see our copyright FAQ for details.

What is a Creative Commons license?

A Creative Commons license is a type of license that an author can apply to a work they own the copyright in that allows for copying with certain restrictions. This will normally be indicated on the work somewhere, often with a notice along the lines of “CC-BY-NC-ND”. For the most part, if you see a work has been published with a creative commons license, you’re free to copy it. The one license you should look out for is “Share Alike (SA)” which has certain requirements that may not be favorable for an ETD. If you want to use a work published under a CC-SA license, you may want to conduct a fair use analysis or seek permission. You can learn more about CC licenses on the Creative Commons website.

What is fair use?

Fair use is a carve out in copyright law that can allow for use of third-party material without seeking permission. When relying on fair use, the person making the copy should conduct a fair use analysis. A fair use analysis looks at four court recognized factors for determining when permission may not be necessary: the purpose and character of use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion used, and the impact on the potential market. For most academic works, the first and final factors are not at issue, so most of the time it turns on the third factor, amount and substantiality used. This is why limited uses such as quotes and single frames of a movie are okay, but figures and photos are not. You can get a detailed breakdown of fair use and how to conduct an analysis on our Fair Use page.

What if I’m unable to get permission?

If you cannot get permission, and fair use is not an option, then you cannot use the work. You’ll need to find a substitute for the work. Please check out our permission page on various ways of obtaining permission to use a third-party work.

I can’t get permission to use this figure, but it’s critical to my point.

While data can be “owned”, it cannot be copyrighted. If there is a figure that you wish to use but cannot get permission for, you can recreate the figure yourself using the underlying data.

Previously Published Works

It’s becoming increasingly common for ETDs to contain one or more articles or other works that have been previously published by the author of the ETD. This creates unique copyright issues that authors will need to navigate before uploading their ETD.

Why are previously published works different?

When you sign an agreement to publish your work, it changes the rights you have in that work. Even though you are the original author of the work, there are now restrictions on the ways you can utilize the work based on the contract you signed. If your ETD contains previously published works, it’s important to have a solid understanding of the restrictions you agreed to before uploading your ETD.

Here are some common features of publishing agreements:

Publishing agreements sometimes give your copyright to the publisher, and other times, the publisher simply takes a license and places restrictions on your use. The final effect is generally the same.
Almost all publishing agreements allow for reuse in an ETD.
Almost all publishing agreements restrict the uploading of their articles to commercial databases.
A publishing agreement may require an embargo on republishing the work.

For GW students, the trickiest restriction is the one that prevents uploading to a commercial database. GW uses a commercial service, ProQuest Dissertations and Thesis Database, to process its ETDs. If a publishing agreement you signed restricts the work from commercial use, then you’ll need to account for that fact.

What if my publishing agreement restricts commercial use?

If you signed an agreement that restricts commercial use, the first solution is to seek permission from the publisher to upload the work to ProQuest Dissertations and Thesis Database as part of your ETD. Your communication with the publisher should be clear and exact. Be sure to mention that you wish to include your work in an ETD and that it would appear in ProQuest Thesis and Dissertations.

What if they won’t give permission?

We can work with you to go around the ProQuest ETD Administrator and directly upload the work into GW’s institutional repository, GW ScholarSpace. Please reach out to your ETD administrator or [email protected]

What should I do if my agreement specifies an embargo?

Please indicate the appropriate embargo length on your deposit form.

**A Copyright issue will never prevent you from graduating.**

Uploading Your Work

The normal process uploading your ETD is done through ProQuest ETD Administrator, however, in some circumstances, you may want to upload directly to ScholarSpace. When uploading your ETD, you’ll come across some questions that touch on copyright.

Should I pay the fee to make my ETD open access?

ProQuest offers to make your ETD open access for a 9 dollar fee. We do not recommend this option. All ETDs uploaded to ProQuest are also uploaded to GW ScholarSpace, which is an open access repository of GW works. Your ETD will be available open access without paying the fee.

Should I have ProQuest register my copyright?

We generally only recommend registering your copyright if you think there is a high likelihood that someone will infringe on your work. That is generally pretty unlikely in the case of an ETD. Additionally, registration is something you can do yourself directly with the Library of Congress for $55. ProQuest charges an additional $20 dollars to do it for you ($75 total).

Reach out to us!

For copyright issues you can schedule an appointment with LAI’s copyright expert.