Answered By: Julia Robinson
Last Updated: Dec 18, 2020     Views: 4

You can usually reuse your work for the purposes of your thesis submission, but if you would like your thesis to be available online via Newcastle University eTheses (which is the best route for making your thesis discoverable), then you would need to double check the specifics of the copyright transfer agreement you signed with your publisher(s).

When publishing, copyright is often transferred to the publisher via a copyright transfer agreement or assigned via an exclusive licence to publish. Therefore if you intend to include work that you have already published (e.g. journal articles) in your thesis online, you will need to ensure that you have the rights to do so.

Some publishers make explicit in their contracts with you that you can do this, others leave it unclear. To be sure you can reuse your published work in this way, please contact your publisher(s) and ask them for permission to reuse the published materials in your thesis and for it to be subsequently published in our institutional online thesis repository.

Alternatively, you can submit your thesis in its entirety and remove (or ask us to remove) the published materials from the version to be published online, or ask for the e-thesis to be permanently embargoed as it includes materials which we don't have permission to re-publish.

You'll find further guidance on copyright and your thesis at https://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/academics-and-researchers/research/copyright/theses/ or you can get in touch with us with any individual queries.

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