Understand the general principles of copyright and intellectual property law and how they may apply to you.
Copyright
Copyright empowers authors to control how their work is distributed and used. It covers anything you create in a “fixed tangible form,” including research articles in journals, textbook chapters, dissertations, websites, and even software code you engineer.
Copyright law can be complicated and depends on what you are specifically trying to do. Refer to University of Minnesota Libraries guide on Copyright Basics for an overview of relevant US law.
This information and the frequently-asked-questions below are just a beginning. The Scholarly Communications Team can help you with any specific copyright concerns.
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Can I use copyrighted materials in my teaching or research? What is fair use?
Many exceptions within copyright law allow teachers and researchers to use copyrighted materials in their work, such as fair use. A doctrine applicable to education and publishing, fair use is very case-specific. Stanford's Fair Use website offers some good resources.
I would like to make an article I published more widely available. How can I do that?
The Dartmouth Faculty Open Access Policy allows all faculty to deposit their work in Dartmouth Digital Commons, connecting your publication with a global audience.
Licensing
What are license agreements?
License agreements permit publishers in most academic journals to take your copyright and remove your ability to share the work elsewhere, so access to your work is limited to journal subscribers.
But these agreements can be used in other ways. Most open access journals allow authors to retain their copyright and ability to share the work widely through other channels.
What is a Creative Commons license?
Creative Commons licenses, sometimes called open access licenses, allow authors to retain their copyright and share their work in various ways.
More Resources
- Dartmouth's Copyright Policy contains official guidelines from the Technology Transfer Office at Dartmouth.
- Learn more from Harvard University's Copyright Office Fair Use and Copyright Explanations.