Hi there,

Just a quick question: my friend is writing his thesis/dissertation and he wants to use graphics: https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/asis/data/nrt/RAIN/wt2409s.png

So long as the content is properly cited, are there any problems with using graphics, etc., of such nature in his dissertation?

Thanks!

FM.

Find out what the copyright is on the figure.  Sometimes they are Creative Commons (CC) licensed.
He can read about the different CC licenses here: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/
If it’s not CC, then he should ask permission, reference it properly and give attribution – e.g. “Figure originally from <citation>”

The friend should have been given guidance on how to cite. FAO retain Copyright but may be copied for research purposes: https://www.fao.org/publications/home/about-fao-publishing/permissions/en

On the page they found that image there should be a “Recommended Citation” text they should use, including any copyright statement at the placement of the Figure and then the citation for the References section.

we generally recommend Harvard protocols, and our library are the experts in getting permissions where necessary …. maybe he could contact his institutes library and ask for their help?

https://www5.open.ac.uk/library/referencing-and-plagiarism/quick-guide-to-harvard-referencing-cite-them-right#:~:text=Journal%20articles-,Surname%2C%20Initial.,issue%20number)%2C%20page%20reference.

If the copying is fair for the purposes of research or private study, or for the purposes of criticism or review, no permission is needed but an attribution is. Criticism or review is the most likely, but some parts of a thesis may just be for the purpose of exposition of stuff already known.

Easiest thing to do is gently put tho boot into the research underlying the thing they want to copy, alternatively praise it in some way. Or both. Criticism and review innit.

More seriously, take a self critical view of why the thing is being copied. Is it just to save the faff of diy or necessary to make a pount?

Often with government / ngo agencies the raw data is available if you know where to look or ask nicely and then you can plot it yourself with appropriate citation.

There’s a difference between a thesis and a dissertation. A dissertation will normally be used internally for assessment only and not published, so using and citing without permission won’t be an issue. A PhD thesis is a published document though, available for anyone to read, so any reuse of images will require permission from the copyright holder unless it’s under a CC license. Permission usually involves completing a request on the publisher’s website and for a thesis will typically be quite an easy process that does not require a fee. All licenses, whether from a publisher or CC, will have stipulations on how the figure is used and cited.

@northernsoul

Thanks, I’ll find out!

Regarding government stuff, i.e., anything in the “public domain”, does that also need a copyright request?

Regarding government stuff

If it’s published under open govt licence (OGL), i don’t think you need to ask to use, but you must use the supplied text.

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

If it’s an UG dissertation, it will be fine to use that figure and put appropriate citation in the caption (there will be guidance on the library website). Likewise for a PhD thesis, similar, you rarely need to get a reproduction permission as there is no commercial gain. However, as a PhD examiner I would generally expect a student to be downloading that data and plotting it themself, integrating it with their dataset.

If it is to be used in an academic paper, then the publisher will require reproduction rights – but again that type of data/model output could really be replotted from source.

From a quick Google, this is the source data https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog/dataset/84efd658-7a24-49ff-aadd-bc731d53db0c (would need checking as I’ve found that quickly on my phone).

They can then plot it themselves and cite the data source.