Choosing where to publish

Deciding where and how to publish is an important step in your research journey. VU’s Research Librarian can assist you with this.

Checking your publishing agreement

When publishing your research, check the terms of your publishing agreement to see how it may restrict what else you can do with your research. Often agreements can be unduly restrictive. This can sometimes even apply to publishing agreements that license (as is often the case when publishing conference papers) rather than assign your copyright.

Will your agreement allow you to use the material in your teaching, conference presentations and lectures?  Will you be able to use the material in other scholarly works and professional activities?  Does the agreement allow you to place a version or even simply an abstract of your research material on VUIR and/or a specialist subject database on the web?

At the very least, your agreement should allow you to:

• to continue to use the material in your future research
• distribute copies of the work to other staff and students for teaching and research purposes
• deposit a pre-publication version of your work onto VU’s repository (VUIR) or your own personal website.

If you are not comfortable with the terms of your publishing agreement, then consider requesting that an author addendum is added preferably at signing.  An author addendum will modify or supplement the terms of your agreement so you are not as restricted in using your research elsewhere. (Please contact VU’s Legal Services if you need any assistance with this.)  Another option is to get written permission from the publisher to use your research for a particular purpose.

What is VUIR?

In accordance with the National code of Research, Victoria University’s Institutional Repository (VUIR) is part of VU's commitment to making research accessible to others.

VUIR is an open access database on the web containing VU research material. Researchers and anyone else throughout the world have access to this material.  VUIR is often seen as a place to self-archive research material.

Whilst material on VUIR is being published, it is done so under a licence. VUIR’s licence does not alter the ownership of copyright.

Do you need deposit your research material onto VUIR?

VU research staff must deposit their research material onto VUIR (see VUIR policy (PDF, 84 KB) unless prevented by the restrictions listed below. Staff can choose to deposit a pre-print, post-print, publisher version, or an abstract of the research.

Please do not deposit research material onto VUIR (or deposit it onto a specialist subject web database) if:

• a publishing, funding, or collaborative research agreement restricts you from doing so. (Remember you could seek to alter your agreement/contract or get written permission.)
• you wish to submit this research material to a publisher (unless you are certain that by depositing this, you will not jeopardise a future publishing agreement.)
• the research has the capacity to produce an income stream for VU or yourself and where the publication of this material on VUIR would diminish this potential.

Specialist subject databases

In addition to VUIR, research staff can choose to deposit their research material onto a specialist subject web database.  (Contact the Research librarian for assistance with this.)  This allows your colleagues in your field to look at the research.  As these databases tend to be open access, follow the VUIR copyright guidelines when submitting onto these platforms.

Depositing published, funded, collaborative research and conference papers onto VUIR or a specialist web subject database

By doing this, you will be increasing the exposure your research receives.  Besides aiding the academic community and the world at large, you will also be increasing the likelihood of other researchers reading and referencing you in their own research.  This can help your academic reputation and future promotion prospects.

Make sure that you are allowed to deposit your research material onto VUIR (or specialist subject web databases).  Check your publishing agreement.  Many specify that only particular versions of the research can be deposited on an on-line database. 

With journal articles, the SHERPA/RoMEO database will generally tell you what your publisher will permit.  Otherwise, look in the publisher’s website for links called “Notes to contributors” or “Information for authors”.  The information would also be in your contract. Please contact VU's eResearch Librarian if you need help with this.

With funded or collaborative research material, you will also need to check your agreement. However if the copyright in this material has already been assigned to a publisher, you will need to look at the publishing agreement.

What if your agreement does not permit you to deposit material onto VUIR or a specialist web subject database?

If your agreement does not permit you to deposit a pre-print, post-print, publisher version or abstract version of your research material onto VUIR or web subject database, you may wish to seek permission to do so.

Do you want a Creative Commons licence when depositing research material onto VUIR?

If you own the copyright in the research material, you may consider taking out a Creative Commons licence. This will allow others to use your work under a range of conditions (depending on which Creative Commons licence you use). Such conditions often include an educational and non-commercial use.

What is third-party material?

Third-party material is basically content not of your own creation.  This can include images or graphs or content from books, journal articles, research papers, WebPages, musical or audio-visual works.  The Copyright in this material will belong to someone else.

Doing research and publishing research

It's important to make a distinction between doing your research and publishing your research material, as the amounts of third party material you may use are different.

Copying third-party material when doing research

For information on copying limits, see the Print and Graphic, or the Off-Air and Audio-Visual copyright guides.

Reproducing third-party material when publishing research material

Publishing your research material includes publishing journal articles and books, and depositing your research material onto VUIR.

Here you must get written permission when reproducing any third-party material in your research unless:

• You are using an insubstantial portion. How much is an insubstantial potion is not clearly defined by copyright law, but depends on a number of factors. A small quote would often be OK. But a musical riff could be considered substantial. A photograph or a diagram is an entire work (even if you have extracted it from a larger book or article). Please contact VU's Copyright Officer if you need help in deciding whether a portion is insubstantial.
• All copyright for the material has expired. The length of copyright protection varies. It generally lasts for 70 years after the death of the author or the date of the first publication/performance, whichever is the latter. Please check the duration table (PDF, 24 KB).
• The work is available under a suitable Creative Commons or similar license.

Please remember to always correctly attribute the author/creator of each work. The rights to reproduce work are entirely separate from the ethical issues regarding plagiarism.

• Look at the detailed guidelines on our Copyright website
• Book into a Copyright training session
• Ask a Librarian or contact the University's Copyright Officer on 9919 5958 or library.copyright@vu.edu.au.

Disclaimer:  This information is provided for guidance only.  For legal advice regarding Copyright law, please contact the Legal Services Department at VU.