Copyright in the work you create

Understand copyright on your own work and what's involved in a publication agreement and the academic publishing of your work.

Intellectual Property Policy

Victoria University of Wellington's current Intellectual Property Policy pdf182KB covers ownership of intellectual property (including copyright) for work created at the University.

Understanding copyright on your work

Although you own the copyright in the work you create in the first instance, you can transfer it to someone else. If you publish your work, what rights you have to use your work will depend on what you agree with the publisher.

Publication agreement

When signing a publication agreement you may wish to consider if you would still like to be able to use your copyright material for teaching, in a thesis, or to distribute to colleagues and then ensure that the agreement allows this (as it’s not always the case).

You may also want to pay attention to what version of your work you are allowed to use, as this may not be the published version.

Academic publishing

For further information on legal terms in academic publishing you may wish to refer to the Colombia law school webpage for academic publishing Keep your copyrights or The Copyright Toolkit for Academic Authors pdf1.3MB (provided as an Appendix to Understanding Open Access in an Academic Environment published by Queensland University of Technology).

This provides a useful resource and can help you to determine the best way to retain the rights to use your own work as necessary.