Intellectual Property (IP) "refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce" (WIPO).
Researchers develop all sorts of IP material in their research and most of this IP is copyright material such as books, articles, tables, reports, diagrams, datasets, editions, photographs, computer programs, music and films, and therefore protected under copyright law.
See MIT's Intellectual Property Policy and Procedure.
Copyright material is important in that it can help your academic reputation, future research and promotion prospects as well as help you financially.
Maintaining control over the copyright in your research material, allows you to influence these outcomes. So ask:
You may copy for your personal research and study:
For researchers, copyright affects you in 2 areas:
See Copyright Basics tab.
See also the Photocopying and Scanning and Document Delivery boxes on this page; For Students tab for further information on copying from other types resources.
See also the Why is Copyright Important in Research? box on this page.
Students: As creator of works, you own copyright in your research materials. This includes essays, theses, journal articles, reports, conference papers, books, diagrams, tables, datasets and photographs.
Staff: Generally copyright in research and administrative materials is owned by the Institute, but copyright in research expressed in books and articles belongs to the creator of them.
For more detailed information, see MIT's Intellectual Property Policy and Procedure.