For the educational purposes, the Copyright Act 1968 allows for the reproduction and communication of one article per issue of a journal, or more than one article per issue if the articles relate to the same subject matter.
To determine if two or more article deal with the same subject matter, consider the context of the journal. For example, a journal on Public Relations can be reasonably expected to always feature articles that relate to the same subject, i.e.: "Public Relations".
However, applying this broad, blanket approach could be seen to be going against the spirit of the Act and a much narrower interpretation should be applied. For example, if one article from an issue of a Public Relations journal discusses with the ethics of public relations, and another article from the same issue examines how the public relations industry is represented in film, then these articles do not relate to the same subject matter (one is ethics of PR; the other is film representation of PR).
Determining if the articles relate to the same subject matter is necessarily a case-by-case approach. In deciding whether the articles meet the criteria of the Act, follow the above approach. Contact the Copyright Officer for further assistance where required.
Please view the Copyright Guide on the University Library website for more information about the above topic as well as other areas of Copyright.
