Copyright is important in the writing, publication and (re)use of scientific publications and other research results.
Proper copyright management is key to ensuring open access to scientific research works. In Slovenia, the adoption in 2021 of the Law on scientific research and innovation, which stipulates in Article 41 that, in the context of research co-funded with public resources of at least 50 %, scientific research providers must ensure open access to all peer-reviewed scientific publications and research data and other research results. This obligation must also be respected by the performers in their individual management of intellectual property rights by reserving an appropriate level of rights. The detailed requirements for ensuring open access, including the management of copyright in accordance with the principles of open science, are regulated by the Regulation on the implementation of scientific research work in accordance with the principles of open science.
At CTK, we offer the following services in the field of copyright:
- explaining the basics of copyright law,
- support for the use of free and open licences, in particular Creative Commons licences,
- help to explain the requirements of carrying out scientific research work in accordance with the principles of open science and related copyright management,
- advising on issues relating to the lawful use of the copyright works of others,
- help interpreting publishing contracts.
FAQ
WHAT IS AN AUTHOR'S WORK?
The author's work is in accordance with Copyright and Related Rights Act an individual intellectual creation in the fields of literature, science and the arts, expressed in any form, unless otherwise provided by law. A work of authorship is a written work (e.g. a work of fiction, an article, a manual), a spoken work (e.g. a lecture), a musical work, a visual work, a photographic work, an architectural work, etc.
Ideas, principles, discoveries, official texts in the legislative, administrative and judicial spheres, popular literature and artistic creations are not protected by copyright.
WHO IS THE AUTHOR?
Under Slovenian law, the author is only the natural person (not the legal person) who created the copyright work.
WHAT IS COPYRIGHT?
Copyright is a single right in a work of authorship, vested in the author by virtue of the creation of the work itself. A work does not have to be registered anywhere to be protected by copyright. There are moral, material and other rights of the author. Moral rights are personal rights of the author - they protect the author's spiritual and personal ties to the work (e.g. the right to attribution and the right of first publication). Material rights are property rights of the author - they protect the author's property rights by exclusively authorising or prohibiting the use of the work (e.g. the right to reproduce or copy, the right to distribute, the right to adapt, the right to make available to the public, etc.). Material rights are the author's property rights - they protect the author's property rights by exclusively authorising or prohibiting the use of the work (e.g. the right to reproduce or copy, the right to distribute, the right to adapt, the right to make available to the public, etc.).
HOW LONG IS A WORK PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT?
Copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author and for 70 years after his death, unless otherwise provided by law.
TRANSFER OF COPYRIGHT
The author may, by contract or other legal transaction, transfer to other persons the author's individual material copyright and other rights. The author cannot transfer moral copyright, copyright as a whole (e.g. "once and for all") or material copyright in all his future works and in unknown uses of his work. The transfer of individual material copyrights or individual other rights of the author may be limited in content (exclusive or non-exclusive transfer), space or time.
Publishers of scientific publications often expect authors to transfer the substantive copyright exclusively to the publisher under publishing contracts or Copyright Transfer Agreements (CTAs). This means that only the right holder or right holder can use the copyright work. Authors can only republish their publications if this is expressly allowed by contract. To help authors secure their own rights of use, addenda to the agreements have been developed to allow authors to amend standard publishing contracts, e.g. SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) Addendum in Science Commons' Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine.
LICENCE
A licence is a permission to use a copyright work.
With a free licence, the author or copyright holder simply tells users how or to what extent they can use the copyright work for free. The best known and most commonly used free licences for written works are Creative Commons licence (CC). The texts of the CC licences are pre-written. The licences are free, easy to use, legally enforceable and can be used worldwide. CC licences have 4 different elements: attribution (BY), non-commercial (NC), sharing on equal terms (SA) and no modifications (ND). These elements combine to form 6 different licences, ranging from the least restrictive CC BY to the most restrictive CC BY-NC-ND.
The CC BY licence allows users to share, copy, distribute the work in any medium and form, to adapt the work, to enhance the work, etc. for any purpose, including commercial, provided that they credit the author of the original work. Regulation on the implementation of scientific research work in accordance with the principles of open science Article 6 refers, for example, to the CC BY licence as an open licence which authors of scientific publications or their employers, where copyright is transferred to them by law, must use for the publication of scientific publications arising from research funded by public resources of at least 50 %.
You can read why the CC BY licence is the most appropriate for open access publications here link.
SUBSTANTIVE COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS
It is the author who authorises or prohibits the use of his work. There are, however, certain exceptions where a copyright work can be used without the prior consent of the author or without transferring the corresponding material copyright or without regard to a specific licence. In this respect, we must take into account the general rule laid down in Article 46 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, i.e. that substantive limitations of copyright are permissible only in the cases listed by the law, provided that the scope of such use is limited in relation to the purpose to be achieved, that it is in accordance with good practice, that it does not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work and that it does not unreasonably conflict with the legitimate interests of the author.
The permissible exceptions are listed exhaustively in the law, e.g. direct teaching (Art. 49), private and other reproductions (Art. 50), quotations (Art. 51), etc. The implementation of the European Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the digital single market However, in 2022, the Copyright and Related Rights Act also introduced new exceptions for text and data mining (Article 57a), text and data mining for the purposes of scientific research (Article 57b) and scientific research (Article 57c), among others. Research organisations and the CTK were among the key stakeholders actively involved in the process of adopting the latest amendments to the copyright legislation. Their views on the changes to copyright law needed for research and education can be found at link.
THE RIGHT TO SECONDARY PUBLICITY
May 2025 was adopted Amendment to the Scientific Research and Innovation Activities Act (ZZrID-C), which, among other things, enshrined the right to secondary publication (new paragraphs 6 and 7 of Article 41 of the ZZrID). The right to secondary publication represents the author's right to republish a work, even though they have transferred the copyright exclusively to the publisher. Authors of scientific works are often unable to retain sufficient rights to ensure open access to the results of publicly funded research, as required by Article 41 of the ZZrID, because negotiations between them and publishers are unbalanced, or because authors unknowingly transfer material copyright exclusively to the publisher and are thus unable to store their works in a repository. The purpose of the right to secondary publication is for the author to retain a certain (inalienable) right and for any other arrangement between the author and the publisher in the contract to be null and void (as also stipulated in the new paragraph 7 of Article 41 of the ZZrID). In addition to Slovenia, this arrangement is in place in a number of European Union member states: Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Bulgaria. The right to secondary publication without embargo is also advocated by the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER). In the study Secondary publishing rights in Europe: Status, Challenges & Opportunities, carried out by LIBER in the framework of the KR21, it is stated that the right to secondary publication is the main legislative instrument for promoting open access.«
Disclaimer
The Central Technical Library of the University of Ljubljana does not provide legal advice on open access and copyright, but only information and help in understanding the legal aspects of open science. Users decide at their own risk whether or to what extent to take account of the information they receive. The Library and its staff do not accept any responsibility for users' decisions. The above information is based on the regulations in force in Slovenia.
Contact
Ana Fidler
tel.: 01 2003 449
e-mail address: ana.fidler@ctk.uni-lj.si
