When you start on a research project, most often you will want to find out what has been carried out in your area of research already and so you will consult relevant books and journals in the field. Again, very often you will want to copy portions of these ‘for future reference’.
UK law says that you can copy insubstantial amounts of the book or journal for the purposes of private study or non-commercial research without needing permission. This is ‘fair dealing’. The problem is that there is no definition in law as to what is an insubstantial amount, and in some very peculiar cases just a few words or sentences could be regarded as ‘substantial’.
Publishers generally accept that in most circumstances the following will be regarded as insubstantial and can be copied under the ‘fair dealing’ arrangements for private study and non-commercial research:
- up to one complete chapter of a book;
- up to one whole article from a single issue of a serial publication or in a set of conference proceedings;
- the entire report of a single case of judicial proceedings;
- in the case of an anthology of short stories or poems, one short story or poem not exceeding 10 pages in length;
OR
- no more than 5% of any published edition above, whichever is the greater
IMPORTANT NOTE:
The law talks about copying and therefore it covers all types and forms of copying including digitizing material by scanning it. Don’t digitize hard copy material unless it is within the guidelines for ‘fair dealing’, unless you are covered by a licence or if you have the permission of the rights holder(s).
For another explanation on the permitted use of copyright works, see:
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-other/c-exception.htm
For information on the law relating to copying by or for Visually Impaired Persons, refer to the web page on the RNIB web site which deals with this topic: