Copyright in the context of scholarly communication: experience report on the LIS curriculum in Brazil

Abstract

In this essay, we present an Experience Report on a course focused on copyright in the context of scholarly communication that we offered in a Brazilian LIS postgraduate program. As a justification for this course, we mention the recent changes in the debates on copyright in the open access movement, which require a deeper understanding of its legal foundations. Finally, we present 14 key themes that can be used by LIS course instructors anywhere in the world to offer a similar course. The topics mentioned for teaching the subject can be considered based on the following general subjects: theoretical and historical bases on copyright, theoretical and historical bases on scholarly communication, copyright in the context of information professionals and various topics related to copyright in science. The aim of this work is twofold: to foster discussion on how to incorporate copyright education into the scholarly communication in LIS curriculum and to contribute to the preparation of specialized professionals for what we anticipate being the next phase in open access debates: the copyright reform. We believe that the course provides a broad and coherent framework for teaching this subject. In our experience, students progressed rapidly from a very low level of competence in copyright debates to a higher level of understanding.