In the process of studying and researching, writing a thesis is an important task, especially for final year students. The thesis not only shows the learning results but also requires the writer to refer to and use documents from many different sources. So, the question is: “Is using other people’s documents in your thesis a copyright violation?” The following article from VCD will help you.
1. What is a thesis?
A thesis is a concept equivalent to a graduation thesis at some universities, and is sometimes also called a topic. However, we are more familiar with the term thesis or graduation thesis. This is a research work presented in written form, revolving around a certain topic, which can be assigned by a lecturer or chosen by the performer. Thesis is usually completed during university or after graduation, to present the results of the student’s research on the chosen topic.
The graduation thesis is applied to final year students, to evaluate the capacity and results of internship, as well as to research a practical problem in the major. This is the thesis that all students must do to report and present their research work related to the major.
Compared to the graduation thesis, the master’s thesis has higher value, greater complexity and larger scale (usually about 100 pages). While the graduation thesis is just a research report based on personal experience and knowledge gained during the internship, the master’s thesis requires the author to have more specialized knowledge and experience.
2. Is using other people’s documents in the thesis a copyright infringement?
Vietnamese law does not have the concept of copyright, in legal language copyright is authorship. Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 4 of the Law on Intellectual Property: “Copyright is the right of an organization or individual to a work that they create or own”. Issues regarding copyright are regulated in the current Law on Intellectual Property, relevant Decrees, Circulars and other legal documents.
Copyright infringement is the act of using copyrighted works illegally, infringing upon the rights of the author or copyright owner. Acts of copyright infringement are specifically regulated in Article 28 of the current Law on Intellectual Property. At the same time, refer to exceptional cases that do not infringe upon copyright as regulated in Article 25 of the Law on Intellectual Property.
Accordingly, intellectual property rights and copyright are an important part of scientific research. According to the law, research documents such as scientific articles, theses and research works are considered the intellectual property of the author. Therefore, any act of copying or using documents without the permission of the author is a violation of intellectual property rights and copyright. Researchers have the right to own and protect their work from being copied or used without permission.
When using other people’s research documents, researchers must cite the source of the documents fully and accurately. This includes clearly stating the author’s name, document title, year of publication and other details to identify the source of information. Citation is not only a legal requirement but also shows respect and professional ethics.
If researchers want to use a large part of the content or reproduce other people’s research documents, they need to ask for permission and receive consent from the author or copyright owner. This is especially important for documents that are not yet publicly available or have special protection rights.
The law protects the rights of the original author in the event that their documents are used without permission or without full citation. The author has the right to complain, request compensation for damages and request handling of acts of intellectual property infringement.
Therefore, when using other people’s documents, researchers need to pay attention to the following issues:
- Before using documents, clearly understand the regulations on citation and copyright to avoid violations.
- Fully and accurately cite the source of the document, including basic information about the author, document name, year of publication and place of publication.
- For documents that have not been made public under a free license, researchers need to comply with the conditions of the license such as citing the source, not changing the content and only using the document for the purpose of the license.
- When requesting permission and receiving consent to use the document, the researcher should keep evidence of this permission in case of a dispute.
Above is the article “Is using other people’s documents in your thesis a copyright infringement?” that VCD sends to you. We hope this article is useful to you.
Sincerely,
