April is the cruelest month, not only for “breeding Lilacs out of the dead land … and stirring Dull roots with spring rain,”* but also because everyone’s end of the year papers are due. We understand this, because every April we at the Copyright Office get a lot of questions about papers, theses, and dissertations.
Common Lilac
This year, we, along with one of our fabulous interns, Jessie Mannisto, have prepared some resources to help answer some of our frequently asked questions.
Jessie has complied resources and written “A Graduate Student’s Guide to Copyright,” which gives solid policy advice on using copyrighted and licensed works in dissertations and other writing. This guide is helpful at all stages of the writing process, and combines a good breakdown of the law with some excellent tips on how to best make use of content.
Additionally, we have compiled a guide on how to make use of tables, graphs, charts, and other data representations in scholarly writing. Check out “Copyrightability of Tables, Charts, and Graphs” if you have questions about how and when you can make use of them in your writing.
*T.S. Eliot. The Waste Land. It’s amazing, and can be read for free online through Bartleby.
[Image by Flickr user OhDuranDuran and used under this Creative Commons License.]