Publishing articles and books
When publishing articles or books, consider copyright before completing a publishing contract.
When to get permission
You must obtain written permission when you include or adapt images, figures, diagrams, graphs or other materials created by others in your articles, conference papers, book chapters or conference presentations. This requirement also applies to web content.
You do not need permission if:
- the copyright has expired
- you have sourced material with a Creative Commons licence or open source software licence that permits your intended use
- you have sourced material from a website whose terms and conditions permit your intended use
- you are only linking to—or embedding a link to—material such as a YouTube video
- you have used an insignificant portion of the material—mostly applies only to text
- you use a fair dealing for criticism or review, or parody or satire.
Frequently asked questions
Check your funder’s open access and research data sharing requirements. Read the full policies and guidance from each funder in the links provided.
Australian Research Council (ARC)
From 1 July 2026, and applying to all ARC grant schemes open for application on or after this date, the following is required:
- All journal articles and conference papers must be made openly accessible immediately upon publication.
- Monographs, edited volumes, book chapters, and research reports must be made openly accessible as soon as possible and within 12 months of publication.
- Creative works are strongly encouraged to be made openly accessible where it is possible to do so.
- A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) must be provided for all outputs, including creative works.
- Data: Plan and manage research data throughout and beyond the life of the research project which includes considering “appropriate access…by the research community”. Currently, the ARC does not mandate open access to data.
For grants accepted prior to July 1 2026:
- Articles and conferences papers require a preprint, version of record, or author accepted manuscript openly accessible within 12 months of publication, in an institutional or other openly accessible public digital archive.
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF)
- Articles and conference papers: Immediate open access of version of record, or author accepted manuscript upon publication (no embargo), with a Creative Commons CC BY licence, in either an institutional repository or public digital archive.
- Data software and code: Share research data and associated metadata via a trusted data repository that assigns a persistent identifier. Apply an ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary’ approach, considering ethical, legal, ownership and sensitivity considerations and adhering to the CARE and FAIR Principles.
- Scholarly books, chapters and edited research books: Encourage authors to make them open access where possible.
- All publications: Immediate open access of version of record or author accepted manuscript upon publication (no embargo) in a trusted repository.
- Data: Responsible management so that data are F.A.I.R, ‘open as possible, but will be allowed to stay as closed as necessary’ and deposited in a trusted repository. Also, available for third parties to be able to verify or validate publications.
- All publications: Immediate open access, either version of record or author accepted manuscript via Europe PubMed Central upon publication with a CC licence, with 6-month embargo available for scholarly monographs and book chapters.
- Data: Publications to include a data availability statement and make data available in line with their data, software and materials management and sharing policy. This includes, completing an outputs management plan.
- From 2025, immediate open access of all funded manuscripts via a preprint server, with CC licence.
- Data: Accessible immediately and as open as possible upon availability of the funded manuscripts, subject to any applicable ethical, legal, or regulatory requirements or restrictions.
National Institutes for Health
- Journal articles: After July 1 2025, Author Accepted Manuscripts to be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication, for public availability without embargo
Contact us
Contact the Copyright and Information Policy Officer