Copyright and your dissertation or project
When writing your dissertation or project, you will likely need to make use of copyrighted works. Because copyrighted works have certain protections, you need to be aware of what you can and cannot copy and how to legally share other people's work.
Copyright and plagiarism are not the same thing - it is possible to infringe copyright even though you have cited/referenced and plagiarised even though you have followed copyright rules.
Most of the copyrighted works you will use in your dissertation or project will be covered under a 'Fair dealing' exception, but it is still your responsibility to ensure that:
- you have adequate permission to use materials and
- you are using them in a fair way - i.e. only to support your work.
Check out our page on copyright for students and the tutorials below to explore this important concept more fully.