Copyright law and your use of electronic journals

Users of electronic journals are reminded that copyright regulations apply to material in electronic formats in the same way as they apply to printed material. Users are bound by law to observe copyright regulations.

We have had cases where systematic downloading of whole issues of some journals has been reported. Such downloading is not permitted. One publisher has already suspended access temporarily to their titles as a result of this abuse.

As with copying of printed material, whilst you may read any article that you wish to online, you should only download or print one paper from any issue of a journal. Under copyright rules each downloaded or printed item may be used only for research or private study.

In some circumstances, further copying may be permitted under the publishers' licence or through other agreements such as the CLA (Copyright Licencing Agency) licence, but this will vary between different titles.

Please contact the library (ext. 22180, email: libenqs@soton.ac.uk) for further information or if you have any questions.

Mark Brown
University Librarian