A common concern of many authors, especially artists and photographers who submit to our journal, is that of copyright. This is quite understandable and in this editorial, I hope to explain how The Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine deals with the copyright of your article as well as provide some advice on how to share your work once it has been published. In 2015, our former Editor-in-Chief, Carly Dakin, wrote an excellent article regarding copyright and the journal, and much of the information below is a taken from this, as it is still as relevant as ever. In addition, I have added a section on the ways in which you can legally share your work to ensure its maximum impact.
Copyright
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that provides the creator of an original work with exclusive control over the publication, distribution and usage rights of that work. Copyright may belong to the author of a piece of writing, or the person/s responsible for the creation of any images contained within. In some cases, copyright may also rest with the authors place of employment.
When a paper is submitted, the author will be asked to confirm they have permission for any third-party content in the article. Prior to publication, a request will also be made to the author to ‘transfer copyright’ of the article to the Institute of Medical Illustrators (who own the journal) allowing for the journal to be distributed. Such an agreement prevents any unauthorised party downloading or copying the article and distributing it on the open internet.
The term ‘transfer of copyright’ can seem rather intimidating and understandably many authors, artists and photographers are wary to do so. However, it is not as limiting as it initially sounds and there are many options available for the author (you can read about the various publishing agreements here: https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/publishing-agreements-your-options/). The journal publishers (Taylor and Francis) and owners (The Institute of Medical Illustrators) will only ever request transfer of copyright for the complete ‘finished published article’ as it appears either in print or online and not, for example, the individual images within a piece or the version that is initially accepted prior to editing and typesetting. The copyright of the individual images remains with the copyright holder and this is noted in writing within the journal.
Sharing your work and making an impact
Once your work is published you will no doubt want to tell everyone about it and ensure as many people as possible see and read your work. To this end, Taylor and Francis have created a useful online guide that you can view here: https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/ensuring-your-research-makes-an-impact/, the key points of which are summarised below.
Free author eprints
Every time you have an article or gallery published with us you will receive 50 free eprints. Eprints are a link you can share with up to 50 colleagues and friends, giving them free access to your article.
Using the eprint link directs people to your article on Taylor & Francis Online, enabling every download (and citation) to be tracked so you can see the impact of your work. All named authors with email addresses get 50 free eprints, so if you collaborated on a paper with three other researchers, this means you get 50 free eprints each (that’s 200 eprints to share).
You can share your eprint link in any way you like, such as emailing them to colleagues and adding to your webpage. Social media is another great way to share your eprints! Once the link has been used 50 times it will continue to direct readers to the article’s abstract page. In addition, as the author, you will always have free access via ‘My authored works’.
Sharing your author’s original manuscript (AOM) and accepted manuscript (AM)
The AOM is your original manuscript (often called a ‘preprint’). You can share this as much as you like. If you do decide to post it anywhere, including on a scholarly collaboration network, we would recommend you use an amended version of the wording below to encourage usage and citation of your final, published article (the Version of Record).
‘This is the Author’s Original Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in [JOURNAL TITLE] on [date of publication], available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/[Article DOI]’.
As a Taylor & Francis author, you can post your Accepted Manuscript (AM) on your personal website at any point after the publication of your article (this includes posting to Facebook, Google groups, and LinkedIn plus linking from Twitter). Again, to encourage citation of your work (and be able to monitor and understand who is reading it using article metrics), we recommend that you insert a link from your posted AM to the published article on Taylor & Francis Online with the following text:
‘This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in [JOURNAL TITLE] on [date of publication], available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/[Article DOI]’.
N.B. Using a DOI will form a link to the Version of Record on Taylor & Francis Online.
The AM is defined by the National Information Standards Organization as:
‘The version of a journal article that has been accepted for publication in a journal’.
This means the version that has been through peer review and been accepted by the journal editor. When you receive the acceptance email from the Editorial Office, keep a copy of your AM for any future posting.
Embargoes apply if you are posting the AM to an institutional or subject repository, or to a scholarly collaboration network such as Mendeley.
Hopefully, this has provided some simple clarification of the rights you retain as authors and creators. If you have any further questions contact Taylor and Francis through their author services page: https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/contact/