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Authors of Journal Articles and Educational Materials Will Have an Image License from RSNA¹

¹ From the Radiological Society of North America, 820 Jorie Blvd, Oak Brook, IL 60523.

Index terms: Radiological Society of North America • Radiology (journal) • Special Communications

The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) regularly reviews its programs and policies in response to research on member needs, as well as to changes in the world at large, that affect radiology. In 2001, the Society decided to take a thorough look at its policies regarding intellectual property. The result has been a change with regard to medical images published in RSNA journals and educational materials, effective January 1, 2003.

Old Policy
The RSNA had been following an intellectual property rights policy that was standard in the publishing industry. Specifically, authors had to transfer ownership of copyright to their journal articles and educational materials to the RSNA at the time they submitted their materials for publication. If, after peer review, the RSNA decided not to publish the material, copyright ownership reverted to the author. But if the RSNA decided to publish the article or material, it retained copyright ownership. Anyone who had wished to republish images—including authors—had to contact the RSNA for permission.

New Policy
Under the revised policy, authors will continue to transfer copyright ownership to the RSNA, but the RSNA will then grant the authors a license to use their images in other journals or books without written permission from the RSNA. However, authors must notify the RSNA of their intent to give their images to commercial publishers (in legal terms, to sublicense their images).

The license applies to the published images only, not to the article itself. The revised policy affects images published in Radiology, RadioGraphics, and any educational materials RSNA publishes, including those published on the RSNA Web site, such as the images seen on InteractED.

Background to Policy Change
The revised policy came about following a discussion on intellectual property during a meeting of the RSNA Publications Council. The Board of Directors decided to establish a task force to review the intellectual property rights policy for all RSNA journals and published materials and to make recommendations. The Board charged the task force with surveying other publications and organizations to determine what policies others are following, assessing the needs of authors and readers, and ensuring that the RSNA continues to receive high-quality articles and educational materials. Anthony V. Proto, MD, editor of Radiology, chaired the task force. The other members were William W. Olmsted, MD, editor of RadioGraphics; Ronald L. Arenson, MD, chairman of the Electronic Communications Committee; Theresa C. McLoud, MD, then Board liaison-designate for education; Robert R. Hattery, MD, Board liaison for publications and educational materials; and myself, then Board liaison for education. Attorney William Walsh was also a task force member.

Goals of the RSNA
In the process of reviewing the copyright policy of the RSNA and developing options for the future, the task force considered the RSNA goals to be (a) retain and improve the goodwill of authors toward RSNA; (b) keep the number of submissions to RSNA journals high and increase the number of submissions of educational material; (c) ensure the integrity, quality, and ownership of intellectual property; (d) retain the ability of the RSNA to distribute scientific and educational content and offset expenses of publication; (e) have the opportunity to publish or license publication of articles in other forms; (f) have the opportunity to take advantage of new publication technologies and media; and (g) protect and promote authors’ material.

The task force concluded that the RSNA should recognize the trend in publishing toward greater emphasis on authors’ rights, provide authors with flexibility and freedom in using their own images, and give academic radiologists something in return for submitting scientific manuscripts to the RSNA.

Notification Required
The requirement for authors to notify the RSNA about their intent to sublicense the images they published in an RSNA journal or in educational materials applies to the process of sublicensing to commercial enterprises, such as another journal, a book publisher, or any other type of commercial publisher. The authors may, however, post the images on their own Web site or share the images with colleagues for presentation in lectures or at meetings, without notifying the RSNA. The Society will maintain records of how many authors notify it about sublicensing of images to a commercial third party to determine what uses are being made of the images. The records will help the RSNA ensure that the images are not being unlawfully "pirated" by a commercial third party. The Board will also use this information to monitor the effectiveness of the revised intellectual property rights policy and review it in the future. The Board might request that authors be surveyed a year after the new policy becomes effective to determine their attitudes about the policy and the RSNA for implementation of this policy.

Policy Elements That Remain the Same
What does not change with the new policy is that authors will still transfer copyright ownership of their articles or educational products to the RSNA, and the RSNA will still own the copyright to the articles and the journal in which they are published. Journal issues and educational products published by the RSNA will still be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Furthermore, commercial third parties that wish to use an article, table, or section of text from articles or educational materials published by the RSNA must still obtain written permission from the RSNA. However, if commercial third parties want to use images from articles or materials published by the RSNA, they may obtain permission from the authors.

Publicizing the Policy Change
The RSNA will communicate this change in policy through articles in its publications, notices on its Web site, electronic communications to members, and a revision of the Publication Information for Authors in Radiology and RadioGraphics.

On behalf of the Society and the Board of Directors, I thank the Task Force on Intellectual Property Rights for an excellent job of reviewing the area of intellectual property rights and developing an alternative policy that will facilitate the work of authors, educators, researchers, and readers.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. J. Morillo and B. C. Lentle Image License from RSNA: A New Threat to Responsible Authorship? [letter] * Dr Lentle responds: Radiology, August 1, 2003; 228(2): 593 - 594. [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. V. Proto Radiology 2003--The Constancy of Change Radiology, January 1, 2003; 226(1): 1 - 4. [Full Text] [PDF]

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