Spiral licences and policies

Deposit licence

This is the licence you agree to when you deposit in Spiral

1. By clicking through this licence, I (the author or copyright owner) grant to Imperial College the non-exclusive, irrevocable, sub-licensable right to reproduce, translate to any medium or format (for the purpose of preservation or migration), and/or distribute my submission (including the abstract) worldwide in electronic format (provided that, if I am providing my submission under the College’s Research Publications Open Access Policy, this is done under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence or a more permissive licence). I am free to publish my submission in its present version or future versions elsewhere.

2. I understand that once my submission is uploaded to the repository, a citation to it will always remain visible, although the author(s) retain the right to update it.

3. The College understands that there may be situations where you need or want to remove your submission from the Imperial College Digital Repository. If you inform the College of this the College will, in the first instance, remove your submission from public view and investigate your concern before a final decision on take-down is made (taking into account any relevant licence terms if applicable). The College will not unreasonably withhold permission to remove your submission.

4. I understand that Imperial College Digital Repository may remove my submission without notice for professional, legal or administrative reasons.

I AGREE AS FOLLOWS:

1. That I have the authority to make this agreement as either author, copyright owner, assignee, or that I am authorised by the copyright owner, and hereby give the Imperial College Digital Repository administrators the right to make my submission available in the way described above.

2. That the submission does not infringe the copyright of any third party.

3. Imperial College Digital Repository Administrators are under no obligation to take legal action on my behalf, or on behalf of any other rights holder(s) if the submission breaches intellectual property rights, or is otherwise subject to legal dispute.

4. If the submission is based upon work that has been sponsored or supported by an agency or organisation other than Imperial College, I represent that I have fulfilled any right of review or other obligations required by contract and that the use of my submission as set out in this agreement does not infringe the intellectual property rights of the sponsor or agency.

5. Imperial College Digital Repository will clearly identify me as the submitter in my capacity as either author or copyright owner.

6. Imperial College Digital Repository will not make any alteration, other than as allowed by this licence, to my submission.

7. Imperial College Digital Repository may keep more than one copy of this submission for purposes of security, back-up, and preservation. 

Use licence

All outputs in Spiral are subject to copyright and the terms and conditions of the licences (where applicable).  Where no licence information is available in the Copyright Statement field, Spiral has a default licence below.  By downloading material from Spiral, you agree to the following terms and conditions of the licence. To reuse content with the default licence, please link to this licence: 

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical NoDerivatives Licence 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) 

You are free to:

  1. Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
  2. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  1. Attribution - You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  2. NonCommercial - You may not use the material for commercial purposes .
  3. NoDerivatives - If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
  4. No additional restrictions - You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation .

No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

Rapid take down policy

To request removal of a publication from Spiral

If you are the owner of the copyright in any of the material on Spiral and do not consent to the use of your work in accordance with its terms and conditions, send the following information to openaccess@imperial.ac.uk

Your details:

  • Name
  • Organisation
  • Email address
  • Telephone number
  • Reason for requesting withdrawal
  • Proof of ownership

Publication details:

  • Title of the publication
  • Spiral item URL (e.g. https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/handle/10044/XXXX)
  • Reason for objection (including evidence of content)

On receipt of a withdrawal request

  1. The Library will acknowledge the request within 5 working days of receipt.
  2. The Library will withdraw the material immediately and subsequently review the request. An initial assessment of the request will be made within 10 working days of receipt.
  3. If the request is considered legitimate the material will be withdrawn permanently from public view, although its bibliographic details will be retained in Spiral. The requester will receive an email giving details of the action taken.
  4. In the event when the request is not considered legitimate, the Library will reinstate the material in Spiral.
  5. The outcome of the review will be communicated to both the requester and the Imperial College London author(s) of the publication.
Thesis deposit and use licence

The Spiral Digital Repository thesis deposit and use licence

This is the licence you agree to when you deposit your thesis in Spiral. Below is the text of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial version of this licence.

If you choose a different Creative Commons licence for your thesis the text will vary slightly to accommodate your licence choice.

When uploading your thesis, you will be presented with six licences, one for each Creative Commons licence. Select the licence which contains the same Creative Commons licence as the copyright statement at the beginning of your thesis.

For example: if your chosen copyright statement says “Unless otherwise indicated, its contents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY).” then you should pick the deposit and use licence with the heading Creative Commons Attribution Licence or if abbreviated, CC BY.

Thesis declaration and deposit licence

E-theses: use licence – Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial Licence (CC BY-NC)

By agreeing to this licence the author(s) or copyright owner grants to end-users of the work the following Creative Commons use licence:

Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

You are free to:

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

View the full licence

Thesis declaration

(a) I authorise that the thesis presented by me in [year] for examination for the PhD/MPhil degree of the Imperial College London shall, if a degree is awarded, be deposited in the Spiral, and, if required, in the National Thesis Service, where it will be made available for public reference.

(b) I authorise the College authorities to copy the submission, or, without changing the content, translate it to any medium or format, for the purpose of security, back up and preservation.

(c) I authorise the College authorities to supply a copy of the abstract of my thesis for inclusion in any published list (hard copy or electronic) of theses offered for higher degrees in British universities.

(d) I understand that before my thesis is made available for public reference and copying, the relevant statement regarding copyright licence is included at the beginning of my thesis.

(e) I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I attach copies of all permission documents to my thesis.  Where I have not been able to obtain the necessary rights or permissions for the inclusion of certain material in my thesis I hereby affirm that I have exercised my best endeavours to secure these and have appended copies of my letters/emails seeking these to the thesis.

E-theses: deposit licence - non-exclusive distribution licence

By agreeing to this license, you (the author(s) or copyright owner) grants to Imperial College London the non-exclusive right to reproduce, translate (as defined below), and/or distribute your submission (including the abstract) worldwide in print and electronic format and in any medium, including but not limited to audio or video.

You agree that the College may, without changing the content, translate the submission to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation.

You also agree that the College may keep more than one copy of this submission for purposes of security, back-up and preservation.

You represent that the submission is your original work, and that you have the right to grant the permissions contained in this license and the use licence that you have selected for your thesis.

You also represent that third-party owned copyright materials are clearly identified and acknowledged within the text or content of the submission and that your submission does not, to the best of your knowledge, infringe upon anyone's copyright.

You affirm that you have included copies of all permission documents as an appendix to my thesis, both documents granting permission and letters/emails seeking permission to which, despite your best endeavours, you received no reply. Where you have not been able to obtain the necessary rights or permissions for the inclusion of certain material in your thesis you affirm that you have removed it. 

IF THE SUBMISSION IS BASED UPON WORK THAT HAS BEEN SPONSORED OR SUPPORTED BY AN AGENCY OR ORGANIZATION OTHER THAN IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON, YOU REPRESENT THAT YOU HAVE FULFILLED ANY RIGHT OF REVIEW OR OTHER OBLIGATIONS REQUIRED BY SUCH CONTRACT OR AGREEMENT.

The College will clearly identify your name(s) as the author(s) or owner(s) of the submission, and will not make any alteration, other than as allowed by this license, to your submission.

I confirm that I have included at the beginning of my thesis one of the college approved copyright and licensing statements. I have checked that the licence mentioned in that statement matches the use licence below.

EThOS deposit licence

I agree that an electronic copy of my thesis may be included in the EThOS central hub repository.

In doing so I understand that work deposited in the EThOS central hub repository will be accessible to a wide variety of people and institutions - including automated agents - via the Internet. EThOS, or its agents, may without changing content, translate the work to any medium or format for the purpose of future preservation and accessibility.

 Freedom of Information Act (2000)

Imperial College is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This Act gives a general right of access to all information held by the College, including information held in the repositories. As a matter of normal practice we will only make your material available in accordance with the restrictions you have placed upon it. However, if someone specifically asks to see it, we must give them access unless the material qualifies for an exemption under the Act.