Copyright for Researchers: Submitting to Research Repository

Copyright for VU researchers

Research Data

Research data is not necessarily protected by copyright as ideas and information in themselves are not protected unless expressed in material form but it can be covered by a Creative Commons 0 (CC0) licence to indicate it is in the public domain.

  • Research data expressed in a table or graph would be covered by copyright.
  • Research data can include photographs, interviews, surveys, questionnaires, field notes, laboratory notebooks, sound recordings or film.

Data and compilations

  • Copyright covers a proportion of research data unless it is just factual information.
  • Compilation of data, for example datasets or databases are protected as 'literary works' as long as they are considered as "original works" by law.
  • Original works are judged by the level of skill, judgment, knowledge, creativity or labour used to compile the data. 

Useful links

Top tips

  • For maximum exposure consider placing your research work on the VU Research Repository (VURR)
  • Check the VU Research Repository site for guidance on submitting your work to the repository. 
  • Make sure you have all the required permissions for use of third party works.
  • Check with your publisher whether you need an embargo to withhold sensitive or confidential information.

Submitting your work to Repository

  • Publications in the Victoria University Research Repository (VURR) include peer-reviewed journal articles, theses and other materials of research and scholarly natures.
  • For information about aspects of your research go to Research contacts.  If you have a copyright concern contact library.copyright@vu.edu.au
  • Publications in the Victoria University Research Repository (VURR) include peer-reviewed journal articles, theses and other materials of research and scholarly natures. There are a number of guidelines related to copyright and the University's policy that are important to consider when submitting material to the Research Repository (VURR).
  • VURR publications are indexed by Google, Trove and OAlster.
  • When making work available for uploading into the Institutional Repository, all third party material in your work must have permission documented to allow further online access.

Embargoes

Restriction of access to full text of a submitted work may be possible in specific cases. In order for access to the full text to be restricted, contact must be initiated by the author with the The Office for Researcher Training, Quality & Integrity and a Restricted Access to a Thesis form completed and submitted. The Office for Researcher Training, Quality & Integrity will be responsible for approving restrictions and will advise the Library as appropriate.

An embargo is often required when choosing the "Green Access" option for Open Access publishing.

Creative Commons for Open Access

Creative Commons allows you to use works, within the parameters of the licences, without seeking permission.  There are a number of different licences which range from very open to more restrictive terms and conditions.

CC0 is the "no copyright reserved" option in the Creative Commons toolkit - it effectively means relinquishing all copyright and similar rights that you hold in a work and dedicating those rights to the public domain.Nov 28, 2016

The CC0 licence can be used for your data as an indication that you allow others to use it.

The suite of licences include core conditions which are:

  • BY = Attribution 
  • NC = Non Commercial
  • ND = No Derivative
  • SA = Share Alike

These core conditions are combined to create the terms of the licences, as follows: