Recommendation to disable option to apply a Creative Commons license to theses/dissertations until we have adequate guidance in place
Context: The current version of SHAREOK presents the following licensing options to students. The last option (“I do not wish to apply a Creative Commons license at this time”) corresponds to the standard “all rights reserved” statement on thesis/dissertation copyright pages.
OU Libraries Recommendation: Disable the license chooser in the new version of SHAREOK to be launched in January 2024 and do not re-implement it until adequate guidance is in place to support graduate students in deciding whether to apply a Creative Commons license rather than using the standard “all rights reserved” language.
Rationale:
In the current version of SHAREOK, we have numerous theses and dissertations that include a Creative Commons license in the metadata but have copyright pages with the standard “all rights reserved” text. This is a concern from a consistency standpoint, but more importantly, in these cases, the metadata and copyright pages are conflicting, and that is a major concern.
At present, the Thesis/Dissertation Instruction Packet does not contain guidance on how to format the copyright page if a student wishes to apply a Creative Commons license. The copyright page should be modified before the student uploads their work to SHAREOK, so clear guidance and a template is necessary.
The Open Initiatives & Scholarly Communication team worked with our IT colleagues over the summer to try to recreate the custom license chooser in the new software, but it is not yet as intuitive as we would like. We also anticipate that further modifications may be needed following the development of additional guidance for graduate students on this topic.
How/when should students be advised on incorporating previous publications?
As has been discussed in previous meetings, the number of graduate students seeking guidance on how to incorporate their previously published work or work under review into their thesis/dissertation seems to be increasing. However, OU Libraries does not have the capacity to meet this need with current staffing levels. As discussed via email, the lack of a copyright officer/copyright office at OU hinders our ability to provide this support.
Ultimately, guidance on copyright is needed in the early stages of thesis/dissertation writing; if a student does not raise the issue of a previously published chapter until they are submitting their thesis/dissertation to SHAREOK, that is too late. If the publisher holds copyright to the previously published content (which is common) and the publisher’s policy does not allow for automatic re-use of that content in a thesis/dissertation, the student would need to seek permission before their thesis/dissertation is published in SHAREOK, and if granted, revisions to the thesis/dissertation would then be needed to acknowledge that permission was granted. Alternatively, an embargo may be necessary in the absence of permission from the publisher.
Melissa and Mary discussed in a July 2023 meeting with Kristi Meyers' team the need for faculty advisors and academic departments more generally to assist students in making copyright decisions well before they submit to SHAREOK. To this end, we discussed the possibility of providing a checklist of copyright topics for students to consider in collaboration with their advisor (and Mary has started drafting this), but does that still seem feasible? Training and support for these advisors would be necessary. Would OU Legal be able to provide that?
Many institutions take this approach, relying on advisors and academic departments to provide copyright guidance to students. See, for example, the following language from MIT:
“When including your own previously published articles in your thesis, check with your department for specific requirements, and consider the following:
- Ensure you have any necessary copyright permissions to include previously published material in your thesis.
- Be sure to discuss copyright clearance and embargo options with your co-authors and your advisor well in advance of preparing your thesis for submission.”
There are a range of other copyright and licensing topics that students should also consider before submitting their thesis/dissertation to SHAREOK, but again, OU Libraries does not have the requisite staffing to offer such wide-ranging copyright consultations at this time. The Copyright Issues section of George Washington University’s Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) website provides a good overview of relevant topics. Note that George Washington Libraries has a Compliance Officer, Copyright & Scholarly Communications, who is the contact for that section of the website.
As part of revising copyright guidance, a decision will need to be made on how to enforce copyright compliance for previously published content (in consultation with OU Legal)
Many thesis/dissertation guidelines from other institutions include some variation of the following (taken from MIT Libraries):
”When including your own previously published material in your thesis, you may also need to obtain copyright clearance. If, for example, a student has already published part of the thesis as a journal article and, as a condition of publication, has assigned copyright to the journal’s publisher, the student’s rights are limited by what the publisher allows. More information about publisher policies on reuse in theses is available here.
If permission is needed for reuse of any content in your thesis, a sample permission letter (pdf) is available from the Office of the General Counsel.
However, policies for ensuring copyright compliance vary:
Many institutions provide some guidance but ultimately place this responsibility on the student. See, for example, the following policy from Rutgers:
“If copyright in the prior work is held by a publisher. For published prior works, the student should read the publication agreement he or she (or a co-author) signed with the publisher to confirm whether copyright was assigned to the publisher through an exclusive transfer of rights or if the student or co-author signed an agreement that the work was a “work made for hire”. In both cases this means that the publisher holds copyright.
If so, the student should read the agreement to confirm whether it permits the student to use all or part of the prior work in future publications (to “re-publish” the work, to “re-use” the work), including in theses and dissertations, and whether any conditions apply:
- If the publication agreement permits such use, no further action is needed on the part of the student.
- If the publication agreement prohibits such use, or if the publication agreement is silent on this issue, the student should contact the publisher to obtain permission for re-publication of the prior work in a thesis or dissertation.
- If the student is unable to locate the publication agreement, he or she should contact the publisher to obtain a copy.
- The student should understand that in transferring the copyright to the publisher in exchange for publication, he or she may have given up the right to use the work in part or in whole without the permission of the publisher. Most publishers are agreeable but because they hold the copyright, it may be necessary to obtain their permission.”
Some institutions require students to supply permission letters from the publisher/copyright holder
University of California Merced requires these as supplemental files: “You must supply a permission letter (or website statement) from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) of any published material used in your manuscript (excluding material covered by "fair use"). The letter, which must state that the copyright owner is aware that “the University or ProQuest/UMI may supply single copies on demand and may make my thesis/dissertation available for free internet download at my request,” must be submitted with your ETD submission as supplemental file(s).”
Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences policy also requires these as supplemental files: “Authors whose publishing agreements grant the publisher exclusive rights to display, distribute, and create derivative works will need to seek the publisher's permission for nonexclusive use of the underlying works before the dissertation may be distributed from DASH [Harvard’s institutional repository]” and “permission letters must be uploaded as a supplemental file, titled ‘do_not_publish_permission_letters,” within the dissertation submission tool.”
George Washington requires them as an appendix: “Place copyright permissions from publishers, thesis endorsements/copies of written and/or signed statements of permission from your co-authors in the last appendix of the document. Copies of emails from publishers or co-authors are acceptable.”
Determine formatting guidelines for acknowledging previously published content (in consultation with OU Legal)
Decision to be made: Where should these acknowledgements be placed within the thesis/dissertation (e.g., on the copyright page, in the preface/acknowledgements, on the first page of the associated chapter)?
Below are several options of which the Open Initiatives & Scholarly Communication team has become aware:
In the case of those Spring 2023 theses/dissertations containing previously published content, these questions came up too late for students to engage in the process of securing permissions from publishers. As such, the Open Initiatives & Scholarly Communication team investigated relevant publisher policies and recommended that acknowledgements be integrated into the copyright page. See, for example: https://hdl.handle.net/11244/337515
Preface/Acknowledgements page
Rutgers' Acknowledgment of Previous Publications Guidelines for Theses and Dissertations states: “If a thesis or dissertation is composed in part or in full of whole chapters or independent articles or reports already published, the preface or acknowledgments page must indicate this and give citations to the earlier publications. Even if the portions of previous publications are more partial, such acknowledgment in the front matter is recommended.”
Separate page in the front matter:
George Washington: “Your ETD must include a statement indicating the dissertation/thesis is based on a previously published work (a journal article, conference proceeding, etc.) in full or in part. This statement should appear on a separate page in the front of your dissertation/thesis document.”
First Page of Chapter
The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill requires a footnote/endnote: “The citation for previously published work must be included as the first footnote (or endnote) on the first page of the chapter.” Additionally, the guidelines note: “If you would like to include additional details about the previously published work, this information can be included in the preface for the thesis or dissertation.”
Dependent on discipline-specific practices and/or publisher requirements
University of California Berkeley’s Dissertation Writing & Filing guide states: “Previously published material must be acknowledged appropriately, as established for your discipline or as requested in the original publication agreement (e.g. through a note in acknowledgments, a footnote, or the like).”
Additional guidance needed on Creative Commons licenses (in consultation with OU Legal)
As noted above, the Thesis/Dissertation Instruction Packet does not contain guidance on how to format the copyright page if a student wishes to apply a Creative Commons license. Before we re-implement the license chooser in SHAREOK or otherwise allow graduate students to apply a Creative Commons license to their thesis/dissertation, this guidance will need to be developed.
Under these regulations, students retain the copyright to student theses.
The student must, as a condition of a degree award, grant to MIT a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to exercise any and all rights under copyright, including to reproduce, preserve, distribute and publicly display copies of the thesis, or release the thesis under an open-access license. The MIT Libraries publish the thesis on DSpace@MIT, allowing open access to the research output of MIT.
Open licensing
You may also, optionally, apply a Creative Commons License to your thesis. The Creative Commons License allows you to grant permissions and provide guidance on how your work can be reused by others. For more information about CC: https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/ . To determine which CC license is right for you, you can use the CC license chooser.
Labeling copyright in your thesis
You must include an appropriate copyright notice on the title page of your thesis. This should include the following:
Loop in OU Legal directly - should someone besides Michael from VPRP be present from OU Legal for this conversation?
Embargo contact from OTC (will look this up) should likely also be included.
Frame support to students such that the student will need to take the lead on getting guidance from their committee chair and/or publisher to use previously published work in their thesis/dissertation.
Develop template language to be shared with GDMS and library. “ownership of copyright”
Will pause on developing support checklist until we have guidance from OU Legal.
