Why is copyright relevant to researchers?
As a researcher you want to publish high quality research. In Chinese law you may wholly or partially transfer rights, including:
- the right of reproduction, including printing, sound recording and video recording;
- the right of distribution or making works available to the public;
- the right of lease, such as in cinematographic works;
- the rights of exhibition, performance, projection, and broadcasting;
- the right of information network dissemination;
- the right of production, adaptation, translation and compilation.
In Chinese law you cannot wholly or partially transfer:
- the right of publication;
- the right of authorship;
- the right of alteration;
- or, the right of integrity.
As a researcher, you are encouraged to retain copyright. The “Publication Checklist” and the “Global University publication Licence” are available online.
Why is copyright relevant to postgraduate research students?
As a researcher you are likely to want to photocopy, scan, or download information from books, journals and web resources to support your research. You may also want to include this material in your thesis or when publishing your research. This material will almost certainly be covered by copyright and under law there are limits to what you can legally copy and reuse.
A PhD student usually owns copyright in their research. An exception might arise where a pre-existing agreement allocates copyright to another party (for example, if you or a project you have worked on is sponsored, or funded by an external organisation).