Copyright Support
Scholarly Communication & Digital Publishing Services (ScholPub) helps WashU faculty, students, and staff with copyright and licensing questions that connect to research, teaching, and library services.
This frequently involves:
- Use of library-licensed content with AI tools, including what database, e-book, and journal license terms permit
- Campus film screenings and public performance rights
- Use of copyrightable content in course materials and the classroom
- Investigating rights status and assessing disposition of works
- Identifying and contacting rights-holders
- Permission and fair use for including third-party content in journal articles, theses, and dissertations
- Evaluating material for digitization, publication, or inclusion in other projects
- Help with terms and conditions for publication agreements
- Support for licensing, Creative Commons, and Open Access
- Questions about Copyright Claims Board (CCB) notices related to your work for WashU
Scholarly Communication & Digital Publishing Services offers customized presentations, permissions assistance, copyright registration help, and individual consultations.
Contact Us
Email Copyright Help ([email protected]) for support; support typically responds within two business/week days.
The Office of the Vice Chancellor and General Counsel (OGC) manages legal affairs at WashU. ScholPub staff offer general information but do not provide legal advice specific to your situation.
Author Rights
The WashU Intellectual Property Policy is the mechanism through which works created by university constituents may be made available for public use. It allocates rights, specifies obligations, and outlines steps for compliance. Office of Technology Management (OTM) facilitates the transfer of inventions and discoveries to private companies for the benefit of society while generating income to support research and education.
Information about responsibly using our electronic resources and licensed material can be found on the Responsible Electronic Resource Use Research Guide.
Copyright Basics
- Copyright & Publishing Research Guides
- Copyright information from WashU
- ProQuest & Crews manual on Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis
- A Framework for Analyzing Copyright Problems (PDF)
Is a Work Protected?
- Chart of Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the U.S.
- Berkeley Law Handbook for evaluating U.S. works created between 1923 – 1977
- American Library Association (ALA) Public Domain Slider
- Digital Image Rights Computator program