Q. How can I learn more about copyright?

The Emory Libraries Scholarly Communications Office serves the faculty, students and staff of Emory by assisting with copyright and scholarly communication issues, and promoting Open Access. The office offers a variety of services, including assistance with author agreements and book contracts, copyright questions, and permissions.

• Author Agreements & Book Contracts: Assistance with author agreements, including ensuring compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy for peer-reviewed articles resulting from NIH grant funded research.
• Copyright Issues: Assistance with questions on a variety of copyright issues, including fair use, classroom guidelines, and how to obtain permissions.
• Permissions: Assistance seeking copyright permissions for scholarly publications, including identifying copyrights holders, as well as obtaining copyright permissions, and the payment of any associated fees, for electronic reserve materials placed on Course Reserves.
• Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). Assistance with copyright issues specifically pertaining to theses and dissertations, including permissions and using previously copyrighted materials in your thesis or dissertation.

In addition, regular workshops on copyright/services/course-reserves/reserves-copyright or educational use and author’s rights are offered. Also, we will provide workshops tailored with a particular focus or topic upon request.

For more information or to arrange a consultation, please contact John Morgenstern (404-727-8286).

Copyright for Course Reserves and Canvas 

All content placed on Course Reserves and Canvas must comply with U.S. Copyright law. No one should post content consisting of copyrighted material or portions of copyrighted material without first:

• determining that the content falls within the public domain,
• obtaining permission from the copyright owner, or
• determining, after a reasonable analysis, that the content is a fair use for which permission is not required

If you are a Canvas user and interested in posting content (journal articles, book chapters, etc.) for which you do not own the copyright, the university requires that you start with Course Reserves.

• Reserves staff will review the content and assist with fair use/public domain determinations, seeking permissions, and making royalty payments, if needed.
• You and your students can access reserves content from your Canvas course under Library Course Reserves.

. You can then create a link to the content on Course Reserves from within your Canvas course. For more information, contact the Reserves Team.

Please be aware that the Libraries review all materials uploaded to Course Reserves in order to determine if those materials fall within Fair Use and/or the libraries' license agreements.