Copyright and Your Honors Capstone
Congratulations on completing your Honors Capstone! This guide overviews copyright and your Capstone. If you are using copyright content in your Capstone project, you need to ensure that you have permission to use the content, that your use qualifies under Fair Use or is licensed for your use, and you appropriately cite all copyrighted content. Additionally, when you submit your Capstone to WyoScholar you must select a license. For written theses or presentations the Libraries recommend either selecting a Creative Commons license if you want to openly share your Capstone, or All Rights Reserve if you do not wish to provide others with permission on how they can use your work.
If you have Capstone copyright questions, please email Digital Collections at scholcom@uwyo.edu.
Terms to Know
Copyright: Copyright law protects creative works. Works protected by copyright law include books, journal articles, websites, blogs, photographs, films, videos, audio & visual recordings, and software programs.
Publishing Contract: When publishing in a journal, the publisher will either have a publishing agreement or a copyright transfer agreement.
Embargo: A period of time where the publication or dissemination of a work is delayed.
Creative Commons Licenses: A Creative Commons license can apply to all works that are protected by copyright law. With a Creative Commons license you can communicate to others how they can use your work while retaining full copyright of your work.
Embargo
Embargoes are optional and represent a length of time that your work is not publicly accessible. If you intend to commercially publish your work (this is most often creative work) then an embargo may be recommended. However, for the majority of academic research, an embargo is not needed. The majority of academic research journals permit "pre-prints" (the submitted version of the work) to be publicly accessible in repositories. If you are concerned about publishing in a journal after submitting your Honors Capstone, please consult the policies of the journal you wish to publish in first. If you aren't sure where you want to publish yet, no embargo or an embargo up to 1 year is recommended.
Creative Commons Licenses
With a Creative Commons license you keep your copyright, but communicate to others how they can use your work.
For example:
Are you fine with someone using your work for any purpose (classroom teaching, translation, sharing online), but don't want them to be able to use it commercially? CC-BY-NC is the right license for you.
Or are you OK with anyone sharing and using your work as long as they also use a CC license? Select CC-BY-SA (for share alike).
Do you want to allow others to copy, distribute, remix, or perform your work without restrictions? Use CC-BY!
Perhaps you're fine with your research being copied, distributed, and shared, but don't want it to be translated or used for commercial purposes. Then CC-BY-ND is the right license for you.
This Creative Commons license generator will help you choose what Creative Commons license you need. Ultimately the right decision about selecting a Creative Commons license - or no license at all - is whatever option you feel most comfortable with and that allows your work to reach the audience you want.
Your Author Rights
- You own what you create. As the author of a work you are automatically the copyright holder. Copyright registration is not required.
- You retain your copyright unless you transfer the copyright to someone else in a signed agreement.
- Transferring copyright doesn't have to be "all or nothing." You can negotiate publishing agreements, or utilize licenses that allow you to retain your copyright while allowing others to use you work in certain ways.
- Giving your copyright to a publisher could hinder your future uses of your work.
Crash Course: Copyright
This YouTube video from Crash Course provides a friendly introduction to the complexities of copyright law if you are interested in understanding more about how copyright works, and how it will affect your research.