Academics’ experience of copyright. A case study of teaching at the University of Greenwich
| Date | 02 September 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-01-2019-0010 |
| Pages | 601-616 |
| Published date | 02 September 2019 |
| Author | Vikee Chauhan,Peter Willett |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Academics’experience
of copyright
A case study of teaching at the University
of Greenwich
Vikee Chauhan
University of Greenwich, London, UK, and
Peter Willett
Information School, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to obtain a snapshot of attitudes and comprehension of the
University of Greenwich (UoG) academics towards copyright and the impact of same on their teaching,
complementing this with a survey of the experience of academic librarians (ALs) throughoutthe UK when
dealing withfaculty and copyright.
Design/methodology/approach –Two questionnaires were created and circulated to capture
information from two sampled groups: the UoG academic staff and UK-wide ALs. A total of 55 responses
were received to the questionnaire distributed to the former, and 83 responses were received to the
questionnairedistributed to the latter.
Findings –The majority of the UoG academics believed they possessed a fair, or better than fair,
understanding of copyright, with numerous respondents self-taught on the subject. Nevertheless, a
significant number thought they might have broken copyright when teaching, while also revealing the
belief that copyright was a limitation on their teaching. The AL survey suggested an average
comprehension of cop yright among academic s, while noting that som e of the latter felt a degree of
antipathy towards copyright.
Originality/value –Although focusedon a single institution, this study implies that copyrightinstruction
for academic staff needs to be substantially improved, and it suggests the need for greater visibility of
trainingprogrammes.
Keywords Academic libraries, Copyright, University of Greenwich, University staff,
University teaching
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Copyright is a legal right that ensures an individual’s or an organisation’s intellectual
property (IP) is protected from unlawfulduplication or adaptation of their work. In the UK,
this right is enshrined in the 1998 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. With the
proliferation of various online sources and resources potentially available for teaching and
study, and with the UK’s recent significant reforms of copyright legislation (Intellectual
Property Office, 2014), awareness and understanding of copyright has never been more
relevant and important. Thisis especially true for higher education institutions (HEIs), all of
which adhere to UK copyrightlaw through the purchase of licences that allow material they
have paid for to be used legally in teaching and learning. Examples of such licences are
those of the Copyright Licencing Agency (2019), of the Educational Recording Agency
Academics’
experience of
copyright
601
Received29 January 2019
Revised18 May 2019
Accepted12 June 2019
GlobalKnowledge, Memory and
Communication
Vol.68 No. 6/7, 2019
pp. 601-616
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9342
DOI 10.1108/GKMC-01-2019-0010
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2514-9342.htm
(2017) and of the publishers of the many electronic journalsand bibliographic databases to
which the universitiessubscribe (JISC, 2014).
Given the importance of copyright, it is of little surprise that there is an extensive
literature relating to its use in HEIs. Some of the literature relates to the copyrighting of
research (e.g., Gadd, 2017), but the focus here is on its relationship to teaching, where the
majority of this literature examines copyright attitudes and instruction from two
viewpoints, namely, studentsand academic librarians (ALs). The group comprises students
that, in theory at least, are most likely to need copyright instruction (Czerniewicz, 2016;
Intellectual Property Office and National Union of Students, 2013; Muriel-Torrado and
Fernández-Molina, 2015;Ovalleand Doty, 2011); ALs, conversely, are the group most likely
to provide such instruction (Charbonneau and Priehs, 2014; Morrison and Secker, 2015;
Rodriguez et al., 2014). Less attention has been paid thus far to the understanding and
instruction of academic staff. This paper reports a study conducted at the University of
Greenwich (hereafter UoG)in the summer of 2017 of the institution’s academics. The survey
investigated theirawareness of copyright, its implementation in their teaching,and assessed
the effectiveness of training provided to help them with copyright issues. This survey was
complemented by a second survey conducted among the academic library staff in the UK,
distributed using mail lists available via JiscMail, the UK’s national academic mailing list
service (at www.jiscmail.ac.uk).
Literature review
As noted above, most of the literatureon copyright in HEIs has focussed on students or ALs.
Nonetheless, there does exist some work, mostly conducted outside of the UK, that is
relevant to the copyright knowledgeof academic staff.
Smith et al. (2006) looked at the knowledge of health science faculty at two American
universities when using copyrightedmaterials for teaching purposes, and found that 56 per
cent[1] of the responding academics had only a limited understanding of copyright law
when related to teaching. Çelik and Akcayir (2012) similarly studied copyright perception
among academics in a Turkish University, finding that while awareness of copyright
legislation was prevalent, appreciation of its applicability when teaching was less obvious.
Only 41 per cent of their surveyed academics responded affirmatively when asked if they
fully knew the meaning or relevanceof copyright. Out of the total, 77 per cent of respondents
were also unaware or uncertain of their knowledge regarding Creative Commons licences,
which provide content generators with a simple, standardised way to grant copyright
permissions to their creativework (https://creativecommons.org/licenses).
Doubleday and Goben’s(2016)investigation of knowledge and attitudes towards
copyright of faculty staff at North American dental schools showed that the survey
participants lacked confidencein the knowledge of their colleagues when comparedto their
own knowledge. When asked about comfort levels in their own knowledge, 51 per cent of
respondents regardedthemselves as “somewhat comfortable”, this despite an overwhelming
88 per cent agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement “sometimes I am confused
about whether I am violating copyright andfair use laws or not”. In like vein, Sims’s (2011)
detailed report into copyrightknowledge of, among others, library staff, researchers and,of
relevance here, instructors, at one American university revealed that the majority of
respondents considered themselves as having as much knowledge as most of their
colleagues. However, as with Doubleday and Goben (2016), when focussing on self-
assessment, Sims’s study found substantial gaps in copyright knowledge, with little
understanding of the basic principles of copyright law as well as confusion over classroom
practice.
GKMC
68,6/7
602
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