Q. Do I need to seek permission for the graphs I've used and cited in my thesis?

Under the Copyright Act, you can include other people's figures, graphs and other images (collectively known as Artworks) in your thesis because of the Fair Dealing (Research & Study) exception.

To comply with this exception in preparation for submitting your thesis, you need to cite the sources appropriately. 

When submitting your thesis, you (and your supervisor) sign an ‘Agreement for deposit of HDR thesis in digital repository’ where you warrant that you have, where possible, obtained the permission of copyright owners for use of any third party copyright material included in your thesis or provided reasons why permission was not obtained. 

Where published journal articles are included, formal permission from the publisher is required in order to ensure copyright compliance (as per the HDR course rules).

Additionally, if you later wish to publish your thesis elsewhere, you must either remove the third party copyright material or get permission from the copyright owners.

See our Copyright guide for more information.