Appendix 1-A. Copyright and Permissions

Introduction

This appendix outlines the key copyright issues that AHRQ staff, grantees, and contractors need to know in developing print and Web-based documents and gives links to sites that provide authoritative information.

Title 17—Copyrights of the U.S. Code states that articles, books, photographs, and other copyrightable materials (such as software) belong to the authors upon creation or to the persons or institutions to which they have assigned the copyright.

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Signing Copyright Forms—Federal Employees

Employees of the Federal Government who submit articles to journals for publication must not assign copyright to the journal. Work done by Federal employees is not protected by the Copyright Act, and copyright ownership cannot be transferred. The following statement should be used if a Federal employment option is not provided on the journal's copyright form.

"I was an employee of the U.S. Federal Government when this work was completed and prepared for publication. Therefore, it is not protected under the Copyright Act, and copyright ownership cannot be transferred."

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Reprinting Copyrighted Materials

Fair Use

A common issue for government employees, grantees, and contractors is the use of material from copyrighted publications in reports or documents to be published by AHRQ. The ability to directly quote short passages of text relevant to a particular point is protected under the Fair Use doctrine. Short passages (typically several paragraphs or less) can be quoted without permission, but the copyrighted sources must be indicated in the text or by a footnote or endnote. The ideas from a copyrighted publication can be summarized in your own words, but the author(s) of the original idea should be referenced.

Excerpting Content

Copyright must be taken into account when reproducing material written by others, including tables and figures that were first published in copyrighted publications, photographs and illustrations, software applications, and multimedia content. To use any of these materials, the AHRQ-associated author needs written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the item. For a sample letter for AHRQ employees to use to obtain copyright permission, go to the end of this appendix. In some cases, the copyright holder, often a journal or book publisher, may charge a fee to use the material. At a minimum, copyright holders will require the reprinted item to run with a statement, such as "Reprinted with permission from J Reason. Human error. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990, p.175."

Tables, Graphs, and Figures

If you create a diagram, graph, or a new table using only part of the data from a copyrighted source, you may be able to cite the item without asking for permission to reprint. If changes are minor and you are using most of the original content, request permission from the source to adapt the material. The changes have to be significant so that the item is sufficiently different than its source to be considered a distinct product. Once permission to adapt the material is received, the item would appear with a statement along the line of, "Adapted from A Donabedian. Explorations in quality assessment and monitoring: the definition of quality and approaches to its assessment, Volume I. Ann Arbor, MI: Health Administration Press, 1980."

Photographs

Permission is needed to reproduce photographs that are under copyright protection. An exception to this is if the photo is in the public domain (for example, it was taken for the Federal Government or it is old enough to be out of copyright). With regard to photographs under copyright protection, you first must determine who owns the rights to the image. Sometimes, the photographer, not the publisher, retains the copyright. The credit line under the picture in a book or journal/magazine/newspaper article should state who the copyright owner is, if it is not held by the publisher. For AHRQ publications, photographs should be accompanied by a notice, "Copyright [or ©] 1956, Time-Life Books." If the photographer's name is known, that should be part of the credit line as well ("Photograph by Ansel Adams, copyright 1967 by National Geographic.").

Digital and Electronic Content

Digital or electronic content is subject to the same protections as print products with some additional provisions specific to online resources. Consult with AHRQ on licensing and permission considerations for the development of electronic databases or Web-based tools.

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Reprinting From the Internet

There are several problems with reprinting materials taken from Web sites (other than a publisher's) or from Internet newsgroups or other discussion forums (such as Weblogs). In the case of discussion groups, current copyright law suggests that posted material is considered as under copyright by the author immediately upon its creation, even if no copyright notice is given. Ask permission to reprint posted messages if an E-mail address is given for the author (even if the author's name is clearly a pseudonym); otherwise, cite the newsgroup and date of posting.

Material posted on a Web site may be under copyright by the author of the site or, as often occurs on Weblogs, it may have been posted in violation of copyright. Do not assume that such material is in the public domain. For text and graphics, the original source should be consulted to ensure the accuracy of quoted or copied material found on a Web site other than that of the original writer or publisher. Text may have been misquoted, and photographs may have been altered using graphics editing software.

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Additional Information

Additional information on copyright and the use of copyrighted materials can be obtained from the U.S. Copyright Office (http://www.copyright.gov), which has links to copyright management organizations, such as the Copyright Clearance Center (http://www.copyright.com). The Clearance Center helps businesses and academic institutions pay fees for uses of copyright material that do not fall under the Fair Use protections. The AHRQ Information Resource Center participates in the Copyright Clearance Center.

Additional information on licensing agreements can be found in the beginning of Section I.

AHRQ staff authors, project officers, and contractors should work with managing editors in AHRQ's Office of Communications and Knowledge Transfer to help them decide what permissions are needed for their project.

For further information, contact:
Randie Siegel
Associate Director
Office of Communications and Knowledge Transfer
E-mail: randie.siegel@ahrq.hhs.gov
Phone: 301-427-1852

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Sample Letter for AHRQ Employees to use to Obtain Copyright Permission

(Letterhead)

Date:
To:
From:

As an employee of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), I am planning to publish the following article (name of article) in (name of journal).

I request your permission to use the following material:

(Full reference to paper, journal, etc., plus name of chart, table, etc., and page number)

I request permission to reproduce and, if necessary, to redraw or modify the material for use in the article. Because AHRQ is a Federal agency, my article is not subject to copyright.

Permission to reprint my journal article can be granted only by AHRQ, which will note that the article contains copyrighted material usable only with the permission of the copyright holder.

Full credit will be given to the publisher and authors. The proposed citation is:

Used by permission of copyright holder. (Same citation as above)

If you would like to modify the proposed citation, please indicate your preferred citation on this sheet.

Please sign below to grant permission and return it to me, preferably by fax. Thank you for your prompt attention and response.

Permission is hereby granted:  _______________________________________________
                                                                   Printed name and title

 ___________________________________   ___________
                      Signature                                                 Date

Please fax your reply to: 301-427-

                                                ____________________________________  ___________
                                                Signature of AHRQ Requestor                                      Date

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Sample Copyright Permission Form

The undersigned hereby grant(s) permission to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), hereinafter referred to as the "Publisher," located at 540 Gaither Road, Rockville, MD 20850, to use the material specified below in the publication titled

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This permission is for AHRQ's use of ________________________ (text, graphics, figures, or photographs), copyrighted by me, for use in this publication and in materials using this publication or pertinent portions of it. These copyrighted items may be used in this publication, in both print and all electronic formats, including future editions thereof.

It is understood that the above grant of permission to AHRQ shall in no way restrict republication by me or with my consent, of the copyrighted item(s), in other works.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The following credit line should be used by AHRQ for each item that I hold copyright to (specify copyright year and names of holders):

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Other provisions, if any:
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If specified here, the requested rights are not controlled in their entirety by the undersigned, and the written consents of the following individuals are attached or must be obtained:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

One copy of this permission form shall be returned to the Publisher and one copy shall be retained by the Undersigned.

_______________________________         __________________
            Authorized Signatory                                     Date
_______________________________         __________________
            Authorized Signatory                                     Date

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