Copyright for Teaching

The CLA

The Copyright Licencing Agency CLA offers a Higher Education a licensing scheme that permits us to copy titles by many UK publishers and a number of US and international publishers. It covers books, journals, magazines and certain digital publications.  

To check if a title is included go to the CLA Higher Education title lookup and enter the ISBN or ISSN of the item, or the title. To supply a PDF you must check that digital copying is permitted. There are certain specific title exclusions and the rights can change, so you should check permissions each time a course is run. You also need to:

• Obey the quantity limits: 10% of a book or 1 chapter, (or whichever is greater,) and 10% or one article from a journal issue.
  (If you need a larger quantity get in touch with the Library.)
• The LBS must own or have access to an “institutional” copy of the item.
  (If a title is OK to copy under the CLA licence but we don’t have a copy/subscription contact the Library, we can usually obtain materials)
• You must use the published version - not a pre-print.
• You must supply the PDF in a secure (pass-word protected) environment.i.e. Canvas.
• *You must record full details of the item and its use. (Full bibliographic details and the course, student numbers, number of weeks. You must attach a CLA copyright cover sheet to the PDF. )
• *The school must inform the CLA annually in detail what was copied so the publishers and authors receive payment.

* To save this administrative burden PDFs can be provided by LINKING to a subscribed database or for scanned book chatpers the PDF can be saved to the DCS (a cloud store) and a link provided to that scan. The DCS automatically generates a CLA cover sheet and records use for the annual return.

If an e-book is available then it should be used - we can link to the book at title or chapter level.

Terms and conditions of the CLA Licence