Copyright Policy

Notification of Copyright Infringement:

Academia.edu (“Academia.edu”) respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects its users to do the same.

It is Academia.edu’s policy, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, to disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe or are repeatedly charged with infringing the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of others.

In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, the text of which may be found on the U.S. Copyright Office website at https://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf, Academia.edu will respond expeditiously to claims of copyright infringement committed using the Academia.edu website (the “Site”) that are reported to Academia.edu’s Designated Copyright Agent, identified in the sample notice below.

If you are a copyright owner, or are authorized to act on behalf of one, or authorized to act under any exclusive right under copyright, please report alleged copyright infringements taking place on or through the Sites by completing the following DMCA Notice of Alleged Infringement and delivering it to Academia.edu’s Designated Copyright Agent. Upon receipt of the Notice as described below, Academia.edu will take whatever action, in its sole discretion, it deems appropriate, including removal of the challenged material from the Sites.

DMCA Notice of Alleged Infringement (“Notice”)

1. Identify the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed, or — if multiple copyrighted works are covered by this Notice — you may provide a representative list of the copyrighted works that you claim have been infringed.
2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing (or to be the subject of infringing activity) and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material, including at a minimum, if applicable, the URL of the link shown on the Site(s) where such material may be found.
3. Provide your mailing address, telephone number, and, if available, email address.
4. Include both of the following statements in the body of the Notice:
• “I hereby state that I have a good faith belief that the disputed use of the copyrighted material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law (e.g., as a fair use).”
• “I hereby state that the information in this Notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that I am the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of the copyright or of an exclusive right under the copyright that is allegedly infringed.”
5. Provide your full legal name and your electronic or physical signature.

Deliver this Notice, with all items completed, to Academia.edu’s Designated Copyright Agent:

Copyright Agent
c/o Academia.edu
580 California St, #400
San Francisco, CA 94104

email: copyright@academia.edu
phone: +1 (800) 347-1392
fax: +1 (415) 520-6926

What is copyright?

Copyright is a form of protection for “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and other works, that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression. For example, copyright protects published and unpublished books, poetry, plays, movies, music scores, song recordings, computer software, photographs, paintings, and drawings. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, inventions, systems or methods of operation, but it may protect the way in which such things are expressed.

When does copyright protection begin?

Your work is protected by copyright from the moment you create the work and fix it in a tangible form. Registration of a work with the United States Copyright Office is not required for protection in the United States, but it is generally required if you want to bring a lawsuit for infringement of your work in the United States.

How long does a copyright last?

The term of protection for a copyright depends on a number of factors, including whether the work was published, the date of first publication of the work, where a work was first published and whether the work is anonymous, pseudonymous or a work made for hire. In general, copyright protection for a work first published in the U.S. after January 1, 1978 lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years from the date of death. For a joint work that is authored by several people, copyright protection lasts for 70 years after the date of death of the last surviving author. The copyright term for an anonymous or pseudonymous work or a work made for hire is 95 years from the date of first publication or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever expires first.

Do I own my work or article? Do I have the right to post my work or article on Academia.edu?

The answers to these questions will depend upon your particular situation. The general rule is that the person who creates a work is the author and owner of the work. However, there are exceptions to that rule for works made for hire and for copyrights that have been transferred, assigned, willed or given to another party. For example, copyright ownership of a paper written by a faculty member may be determined in several ways, including by a written agreement between the university and the faculty member or by the university’s institutional policies on the ownership of copyrights for works created at the university and the allocation of royalties between the university and the author. In addition, publishers frequently require authors to transfer their copyrights to the publishers as a condition of publication. The transfer of ownership of a copyright to a publisher will prevent the author from future use of the work unless the author has agreed with the publisher that he or she reserves his or her right to use the work for certain purposes, such as teaching, research or other non-profit educational activities, or for certain types of use, such as rights to post an electronic version of the work on the faculty member’s website or on websites like Academia.edu. Many journals will also allow an author to retain rights to all pre-publication drafts of his or her published work, which permits the author to post a pre-publication version of the work on Academia.edu. According to Sherpa, which tracks journal publishers' approach to copyright, 90% of journals allow uploading of either the pre-print or the post-print of your paper.

May I use someone else's work without getting permission?

In general, you should not use a copyright protected work without permission and, if you do so, the copyright owner may bring an infringement action against you. However, under the “fair use” doctrine in United States copyright law, there may be circumstances in which it is permissible to use limited portions of a work without permission, such as quoting part of a work, for purposes like commentary, criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Whether a particular use qualifies as a fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis depending on the specific circumstances of the use. There are no rules that permit the use of a certain number of words or percentage of a work as a “fair use.” For more information about fair use, please see the U.S. Copyright Office’s factsheet at https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/.

Who is an author?

The person who creates the original expression in a work is its author. The author is also the owner of the copyright in a work unless the author assigned or transferred the copyright to another person or entity through a written agreement. For works made for hire, the author is the employer or the party that commissioned the work.

What is joint authorship?

A joint work is a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be combined into a single work. Unless the joint authors agree otherwise, each joint author has an equal and undivided ownership in the entire joint work and can exploit the work by granting licenses to third parties without permission from the other joint owners. Each joint author has a duty to account to the other joint owners for a share of any profits earned from his or her exploitation of the joint work.

What is a work made for hire?

A work made for hire is either a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment or a statutorily defined category of work specially ordered or commissioned in a written agreement. The author of a work made for hire is the employer of the person who created the work or the party that commissioned creation of the work.

What is the public domain?

A work of authorship is said to be in the public domain if it is not protected by copyright law. A work may be in the public domain for a number of reasons, including publication prior to enactment of a copyright law, expiration of the copyright term or dedication of the work to the public domain by the copyright owner. Works in the public domain may be used freely by anyone without permission.