Research publications

Using copyright protected works in your own work

Permission to use copyright-protected works must be obtained from the copyright owner unless:

• permission has already been granted;
• your use can be considered insubstantial; or
• an exception like fair dealing applies.

Fair dealing

With research being an allowable purpose, you will also need to consider the five other factors (character, amount, alternatives, effect and nature) in the six-factor test created by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The medium should be considered when assessing what amount of text, image, video, sound recording, or other type of work is fair to copy. Finding Creative Commons and public domain media is one way of assessing whether an alternative text, image, video, sound recording, or other similar work exists. You will also need to consider the distribution of the copied content, whether the research competes with the original market of the work copied, and the nature of the work being copied.

Images

Reproduction of images may present a unique set of challenges because of publishers’ image quality requirements. Even if an image is in the public domain, you may need to seek out a quality version, which could involve digitization fees.

Permissions

You will need to seek permission to reproduce a copyright-protected image, text, sound recording, video or other work in your research publication, unless a copyright exception applies.

Page last reviewed on: 2023-10-18