Copyright for Staff

As a researcher you may need to use other people's copyright material in your own work. The Copyright Toolkit for Researchers (available below) will assist you in managing copyright matters in your research.

The most important elements of copyright legislation relevant to researchers are: Fair Dealing and Reasonable Portions. You should note, however, that the current fair dealing provisions relating to research or study are likely to only apply to research or study in its literal sense. For example, you will be permitted to photocopy or download a 'fair' amount from a textbook or journal article for the purposes of researching your thesis. It is unlikely, however, that this will extend to disseminating and communicating your research in print or digital formats.

Fair Dealing for the purpose of research and study allows an individual to make a copy of a ‘reasonable portion’ of a copyrighted work for their own research and study without seeking permission or making any royalty payment. 

Always include a full reference / citation of the work.

A ‘reasonable portion’ of a work for to be copied for your own personal research, but not for sharing, consists of:

Copying from a book

1 chapter or 10% of the pages (whichever is greater).

You may copy more than a ‘reasonable portion’ for research and study if:

• The book's author died more than 70 years ago. Copyright has ceased to apply so you can copy as much as you want.
• The book has been published with a Creative Commons licence. You can copy and use the material as defined under the terms of the particular licence.
• You have received permission from the copyright owner.
• The book is out of print or otherwise unavailable - please contact the Manager, Scholarly Publications and Copyright for more information.

Copying from an anthology

Any work of fewer than 15 pages from an anthology of separate works (e.g. a selection of essays, a collection of poems, etc.).

Copying artistic works

It is considered ‘reasonable’ to reproduce ‘artistic works’ (including maps, diagrams, graphs, etc) that accompany and illustrate or explain a text being copied under Fair Dealing.

Copying from a journal or other periodical

One article from any one issue of a journal, or more than one from an issue of a journal if they are required for the same research or course of study.

Copying from a website

The Copyright Act allows you to download 10% of the number of words in a published work in electronic form. However, many websites give either an implicit or explicit licence to download their materials:

• An implicit licence might be a printer icon or pdf symbol inviting you to make a copy of content from the website.
• An explicit licence would probably be set out in the website's terms and conditions or copyright information. Look on the homepage for links to 'Terms of Use' or 'Copyright' where you may find that you can download content for your personal, non-commercial use.

Download the document below as a ready-reference during your research. It includes a sample permission letter and a checklist as well as easy-to-read information on the copyright for higher degree research students and academic staff.

Download this document for ready-reference during your research.

The University's digital repository Pure contains Bond University theses and research outputs of Bond University HDR students and academic staff. 

See the Writing and Submitting a Thesis guide for more information, or if you would like to know more about publishing and open access visit the Open Access and Scholarly Publishing guide.

See also the NHMRC and ARC guide on Authorship below.