Who holds copyright to my SFU thesis?

Question

I've received an email from a publisher asking for my permission to have them publish my M.Sc. thesis that I did at SFU. My question is: Does SFU own copyright on theses by SFU students or am I allowed to give others permission for publishing my thesis. Thanks a lot for you assistance.

Answer

Students hold copyright on their theses (see next paragraph)--however--we caution you with respect to some online publishers. If you do a simple Google search on the publisher and they appear to be legitimate publishers, the Library cautions about signing any document that would take away your copyright and/or provide them with banking information regarding potential royalties. There are many websites and blogs of previous grad students remarking on these kinds of publishers. This is worth considering before you go forward.

Each student signs a Partial Copyright Licence and, once the audit on each thesis has been completed, a Declaration of the Partial Copyright Licence is included in the digital copy so there is no question as to who holds publishing rights to your thesis. 

Please also see the Copyright Permissions page.