Information on conducting your research is available through the UVic Research website. Users are required to log in using their Netlink ID and password to access individual pages.

The UVic Research website also includes information on the use of animals in research and links to forms and guidelines, policies, animal care committee meetings, standard operating procedures and frequently asked questions.

The human research ethics board (HREB) ensures that UVic research and research occurring in academic courses involving human participants or human biological materials meets the ethical standards required by Canadian universities and national regulatory bodies.

If you have any questions, including whether a regulatory approval is required, please contact the research ethics staff listed:

• Human research ethics assistant: 250-472-4545 or ethics@uvic.ca
• Animal research ethics assistant: 250-853-3187 or acsc@uvic.ca
• Occupational Health, Safety and Environment general office (other safety approvals): 250-721-6359 or ohs@uvic.ca

Consult the UVic Research website for information on intellectual property and how it is handled at UVic. You can also review the guide to intellectual property produced by the Canadian Association of Graduate Students for more information on intellectual property considerations.

Both the University of Victoria Partial Copyright License form and the Non- Exclusive License to Reproduce Theses form from the library and Archives Canada must be completed by all candidates.

These items must be printed, signed and submitted as part of the thesis and dissertation completion process. If any of these signatures are missing, the thesis or dissertation cannot be accepted by the Graduate Admissions and Records Office.

To place an items into UVicSpace, you must have the right to distribute it (own the full copyright) or have the permission from the copyright holder (typically a publisher if you don't own it yourself). Many publishers allow one or more versions of an author's work to be placed into institutional repositories like UVicSpace. These versions, described below, depend on a publisher's policies:

1. Pre-print: the author's version of the paper before peer review;
2. Post-print: the author's version of the paper after peer review, with revisions made; and
3. Publisher's version: the formatted version from the publisher, identical to what is produced in their print journal or found in a subscription database.

When you deposit an article, publishers may require you to include a block of copyright text or a link to their website. There are sections to cut-and-paste this information when you deposit a work in UVicSpace. Publishers may also have an embargo period, wherein you are barred from archiving an article until a certain period of time after publication (6 months, 12 months, etc.). Unless the policy says otherwise, fulfilling the publisher conditions is all you need to do to "clear copyright" and have permission. If you follow the guidelines in the policy on inclusion of copyrighted material below, you will not need to contact the publisher to submit to UVicSpace.

Policy on inclusion of copyrighted material

Taken from the Guidelines for the Preparation of Masters' Theses and Doctoral Dissertations produced by Graduate Admissions and Records

The Library and Archives Canada through its agent, ProQuest/UMI, microfilms all University of Victoria theses/dissertations. In so doing, ProQuest/UMI must ensure that it is not infringing copyright law by microfilming copyrighted material.

ProQuest/UMI will reject a thesis or dissertation which includes copyrighted material if the owner's consent for its use has not been obtained. However, the present Canadian copyright act does provide an exception, under a provision for "fair dealing," which protects the authors of theses/dissertations from the full effects of the infringement provisions. This includes actions which "do not constitute an infringement of copyright," "any fair dealing with any work for the purpose of research." However, this clause applies only when the material used does not comprise either "the whole" or "a substantial part" of the copyrighted original.

The following is for the general information of candidates who are engaged upon, or who are about to embark upon, research and preparation of a dissertation or thesis for a graduate degree in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Victoria. It is, however, emphasized that it is not to be interpreted as legal advice. Neither the faculty nor the university (including any faculty or staff member) can, or does, give legal advice to candidates. If legal advice is desired or required, candidates should retain the services of a solicitor.

Copyright is frequently confused with plagiarism. They are quite different. Plagiarism is the taking of the ideas, works or depictions of another and representing them or passing them off as your own. To avoid plagiarism, the source of the ideas, words or depictions must be acknowledged and proper credit given. However, any such acknowledgment does not negate a breach of copyright, which occurs upon the reproduction of the work, whether or not it is accompanied by an acknowledgment.

Copyright is breached when any person other than the owner of the copyright (or in the case of moral rights, other than the author) does anything that violates the rights of the owner (or author). Most candidates in the Faculty of Graduate Studies will be primarily concerned with the owner’s right to control reproduction of the whole work or a substantial part of the work. The reference to “substantial” has both quantitative and qualitative features. Usually the qualitative feature is the most significant feature because it contains a key, crucial or attractive portion of the work. Indeed, the fact that someone wishes to reproduce it suggests that it is of some qualitative value. Beyond this there is little guidance as to what constitutes substantiality in qualitative terms. Similarly there is little guidance as to what quantitatively is a substantial amount. In an attempt to give a practical guideline, the Faculty of Graduate Studies recommends that:

1. At a minimum, when more than one full page or 10% of a work is reproduced in a thesis or dissertation by quotation or otherwise, the candidate should attempt to obtain a copyright clearance or consent from the owner of that work. This is not to say that a violation of copyright cannot occur within these limits.
2. Copyright clearances or consents should be obtained by the candidate for the reproduction of the whole of any map, diagram, chart, drawing, survey, questionnaire, computer code, painting, photograph, or poem in any thesis or dissertation. Care must be given that attribution is to the actual creator of the work.
3. No work of any nature should be reproduced in any thesis or dissertation in any distorted or modified format without both a copyright clearance from the owner and a waiver of moral rights from the author.

Works that have been published for over 50 years from the death of the author are in the public domain and need not be dealt with in the restricted manner described above. However, care must be exercised when dealing with works reprinted in modern editions. If it appears that those modern editions contain additional editorial work or rearrangement of the original work (for instance, the inclusion of modern stage directions or added musical arrangements), those additions may be sufficiently substantial to be the subject of an independent copyright which may not have expired.

Where it is necessary to include "the whole" or "a substantial part" of a copyrighted item, the student is advised to apply to the owner of the copyright for permission. This action may involve considerable time and should be done well in advance of the submission of the thesis/dissertation. Additional information can be obtained through Proquest/UMI Dissertation Author Relations. A letter of permission must recognize your right as the author of the thesis/dissertation to have it reproduced through the library and Archives Canada and its agents.

When permission to quote is not available, the copyrighted material should not be included in the body of the thesis/dissertation, but should be added as an appendix which can be withheld from binding and microfilming. Such material should be correctly referred to within the thesis/dissertation. A letter from your supervisor acknowledging the removal of the appendix from binding and microfilming is required with your final thesis/dissertation copy(ies).