Copyright for researchers

Researchers often uses the work of others and incorporate this into their own research: copyright indicates within which framework researchers may do so.

Important in this regard is article 15a of the Dutch copyright law: the right to quote. The right to quote includes both text, images, audio- and video fragments. Works may be quoted when:

1. The quoted work was made public lawfully;
2. The quote serves to support the content of your work. It is not for embellishment;
3. Nothing more is quoted than strictly necessary. Images may be quoted in their entirety;
4. No changes have been made in the quoted work;
5. The quoted source is clearly stated.

Research, when it is made public, is a new creation: a new work with new rights, with the researcher (or a third party) as copyright holder. Copyright indicates what the rights of the researcher are and how third parties may use the work.

If a researcher wants to make the work public, there are several questions that must be answered: how does the researcher want to make the work public? Through a large (or small) publisher? Through Open Access? Here too there is a copyright dimension: can the researcher retain the copyright if so desired?