Dylan Mohr: Copyright and Your Dissertation

Syracuse University Gradcast

If you’re writing a dissertation, it’s likely you’re incorporating at least some material that is under copyright and thus requires permission to reproduce. In this episode, Dr. Dylan Mohr, Syracuse University’s Open Scholarship Librarian, discusses copyright issues that dissertation-writers are likely to encounter, including identifying, approaching, and perhaps negotiating with copyright holders; how the concepts of fair use and the public domain come into play; and reproducing your own previously published work in your dissertation. Dylan also considers the questions of whether to formally register copyright on your dissertation, whether to make your dissertation available on your institutional repository, and what resources exist to help you. Don’t let ignorance of your dissertation’s copyright context trip you up at the finish line!