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CLA data collection exercise

University staff are being asked to take part in an exercise which will provide a snapshot of how they copy or use published materials. 

The University of Salford holds a copyright licence that allows staff to photocopy, scan and re-use published material. This includes books, journals and periodicals used for learning and teaching purposes. 

The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) is conducting a data collection exercise at the University and this information helps the CLA to pay the authors, publishers and visual artists whose work is being copied. Some of the creators who, as a result of this exercise, will receive royalties for the re-use of their work may even be staff at our University! 

From 23 September to 8 November 2024, all staff should record which books, journals and magazine articles they photocopy or print. There will be simple digital tools to help do this, detailed below. 

Who needs to take part?

This data collection exercise applies to all University departments, both academic and non-academic, including the library and specialist areas such as research. Non-academic departments not involved in teaching or learning, such as HR and Marketing colleagues involved in administration or press monitoring, should also participate.   

What do I need to do?

You can record what you copy or scan in several ways: 

  • Use the Copyright option that has been embedded into the software of most University printers. Instructions will be on the printers for the duration of the audit.
  • Fill in a quick and easy online reporting form that will capture essential information when the CLA Copy button is not an option. 
  • A cloud-capturing facility will be available to accommodate larger resources such as printed course packs.
Online reporting form

Please be aware that the requirement on all staff only relates to photocopying or printing publications. It does not include any digital or electronic resources, as these are reported separately, and it does not apply to students.   

Please complete all the fields, including the quantities, then click submit. Depending on the browser settings the form will reset itself so you can continue recording data.  

How to send your print/copy information to the CLA

The scan button on the printer
  1. Finish your printing/copying as normal, but don't log out
  2. Click the back arrow to see the options to Scan, Copy, Print
  3. Press Scan
  4. Press Copyright
  5. Key in how many people you plan to share your printed / copied documents with
  6. Place the documents that you have printed / copied in the top scanning tray. You must scan ALL pages of the documents that you have used. 
  7. Press scan in the bottom-right of the screen
  8. When this is completed you can log out

Course packs

If you are copying course packs to be distributed to your students, the packs will need to be uploaded to a secure area provided by the CLA. Please send a copy of the packs to Angela Walker (a.d.walker@salford.ac.uk) and include the following information:

  • Name of academic area and course of module
  • Number of students the packs were made available to. 
Frequently asked questions

Who needs to participate in the data collection?

This is a staff only exercise, and includes both academic and professional services staff - students are not included, except for postgraduates who are involved with teaching, group research projects, etc.

What is included?

Relevant data may come from:

  • Books, magazines, journals, periodicals, etc. including extracts or line quotes.
  • Copies of copies.
  • Educational materials which contain multiple extracts such as learned/research journals/monographs and chapters from reference books, alongside lecturer prepared material. These resources are sometimes known as study packs, readers, course packs, course handouts, course readings etc. though names may vary. Packs should pertain to courses which form any part of the 2024-25 academic year, are course/module specific (as opposed to a particular term) and may be produced/distributed at any time. This means that packs created during a previous year but which continue to be provided to students, should be included regardless of when the packs are actually given out.
  • Copyright content transcribed and used in a printed resource such as a presentation or supporting handout.
  • Copyright content captured on a mobile device and subsequently printed out and/or copied.
  • Crown Copyright, unless published under OGL. (Some Government publications which receive private sector funding cannot be published under OGL.)
  • Open resources and material from hybrid publications, where a mix of copyright and open access content is included (particularly in journals or other collections of work).
  • Resources provided to non-credit bearing students covered by the HE licence; for example, if undertaking professional or short courses.
  • Resources used or provided by Professional Services, such as HR training handouts or press clippings used for marketing communications.
  • On-copying from born digital material made under the CLA licence is subject to the same terms as a photocopy so should be included.
    • Resources containing published content which are scanned to the VLE are excluded unless they have been omitted from the CLA digital reporting process.
    • o Copies made for personal use or private study are excluded.

What if a publication doesn’t have an ISBN/ISSN?

Other identifiers such as title and publisher are very important so the more detail you can give us the better, particularly if copying from another photocopy. If you’re not sure, you should still send this material to us as we have several tools which can help to identify a publication.

Why does CLA need this information?

Most of the revenue we get from our licence holders is redistributed as royalty payments. Only by collecting data can we ascertain whose work is being copied and how much the rights’ holders should be paid. Academic staff often publish material so, potentially, you could be helping higher education colleagues as well as creators outside the sector.

Are there any cost implications for my department?

There are no penalties for high volume copying of copyright material however many people you are sharing it with. However, it is important to be aware of what the licence allows you to copy so further details can be found at https://cla.co.uk/higher-education-licence-docs.

I seldom photocopy published material - do I really need to be involved?

During the remote exercise even if you copy something just once you still need to let us know. A one-off copying event may seem inconsequential but when aggregated with data from other institutions, its value can become very significant.

All my print copies come from digital material – do I need to include it?

For ‘born-digital’ content, once a paper printout has been made under the CLA licence, it is subject to the same terms and conditions as a photocopy and should be recorded as part of the data collection. Please see HE Licence User Guidelines for details.

Why do you include open access and crown copyright content?

Whilst usually beyond the scope of your CLA licence, there are occasions when we can make a royalties payment for this type of content, particularly when they appear alongside other published material such as in a journal. Rather than ask colleagues to check qualifying criteria it may be easier to include all relevant material and anything which is not payable will simply be filtered out when the data is processed.

Are exam papers which include copyright extracts collected?

Copying of papers for examination use are excluded. However, if any other use is involved, such as using a paper after the exam in a lecture or course pack, it will need to be included.