DIGITAL-FIRST PUBLISHING IMPROVES COPYRIGHTS
As the final installment of this blog series on the 10 benefits of medical publishing digital transformation, I think it’s important discuss copyrights. It always seems unfair to me that journals required a transfer of copyrights to them from the authors. In many other instances, a copyright can demand remuneration or is retained by the originator of the work. Until recently authors in medical journals did not really have a choice. However, with the digital transformation of medical journals even the copyright situation is changing. Traditional scientific journal publication embraced a copyright ownership approach which might be considered archaic by today’s standards. During the height of the pandemic, there were calls for increased access to all scientific information. Although not a product of the pandemic, the open access (OA)OA movement got a large “shot in the arm” during this period and continues to grow in popularity and usage. Although many scientific articles are still published in paywall journals, the number of OA articles is dramatically growing in share. Grantors/sponsors prefer OA and many are requiring authors to publish only in OA journals. Publishing OA journals in many cases not only means the article is freely accessible later, but also means the copyright uses a creative commons (CC) license. A CC license is a public copyright that enables the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted “work.” There are many variations of a CC copyright, but most are used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that the author has created. This new copyright approach is being required by many grantors/sponsors and is rapidly becoming an offering in medical journals that scientific communicators can use to a benefit. The previously restrictive medical journal copyright approach required authors to assign copyright over to the journal thus, limiting the manner in which the article and material could be used by the scientific communicator. With a CC BY license approach, scientific communicators may be able to utilize the article and material in more ways to the advantage of the scientific communication/exchange campaign. However, be wary of journals requiring a CC BY-NC requirement for commercial sponsors. The CC BY-NC license states the article/material can be shared or adapted in any medium or format, as long as the original article is given attribution and it is for a “non-commercial” use. These licenses are essentially pejorative to commercial entities and should be avoided as much as possible by scientific communicators. On the other hand, the least restrictive CC BY with no modifier can be of great advantage as scientific communicators look to extend the scientific communication farther into the community beyond the individual journal audience. Improved copyright is just one of the many benefits offered with the digital transformation of medical publications. To read more benefits, search the back issues of the blog here on this site. If you are interested in learning more about how you can realize some of the digital-first publication benefits, please contact us at www.Omni-HC.com or sign up for a free private workshop for your medical affairs organization. Click here to sign up for a Free Workshop The next post in the series will discuss the enhanced transparency and data availability available thanks to the medical publication digital transformation. In the meantime, please consider participating in our Medical Affairs Digital Transformation Survey. At the end of the survey, you will receive a free benchmarking profile of your digital transformation progress in context to others in the industry. Click here to take the digital transformation survey
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April 2022
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