Resources Shared with Educators and Researchers

For copyrighted materials to be considered copyright-free, permissions or agreements must have been granted to all or to a defined population, such as educators.

• HEAL, Health Education Assets Library - Health sciences images shared via the Internet; many are copyright-free
• MedEdPortal -The AAMC provides MedEdPORTAL as an online inventory of resources covering materials for undergraduate education to residency and fellowship. MedEdPORTAL provides access to peer-reviewed medical education resources, such as graphics, animations, tutorials, lab manuals, assessment instruments, faculty development materials, and computer-based resources, including an inventory of virtual patients.
• Creative Commons - (excerpts from Creative Commons website) - The vision behind creative commons is 'to build a layer of reasonable, flexible copyright in the face of increasingly restrictive default rules'. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that provides free support for individuals wishing to share their work with others and to find other works that the author has agreed to share. With a Creative Commons license, you keep your copyright but allow people to copy and distribute your work provided they give you credit — and only on the conditions you specify. If no conditions are placed on use, works become part of the public domain. . UAMS faculty are eligible to share their works through Creative Commons.
• Scholarly publishing/Open Access andScience Commons - online tools to help authors exercise choice in retaining critical rights in their scholarly articles, including the rights to reuse their scholarly articles and to post them in online repositories, including the Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine, an online tool created by Science Commons to simplify the process of choosing and implementing an addendum to retain scholarly rights. By selecting from among four addenda offered, any author can fill in a form to generate and print a completed amendment that can be attached to a publisher's copyright assignment agreement to retain critical rights to reuse and offer their works online.

Websites and Permission

Look for information on the educational use of Internet-based materials on the website – either stated on the website or via a contact email provided.  Retain any record you believe gives you permission for any use such as a printout or an 'educational use permitted' statement, any correspondence granting permission. If the website asks that you notify them if you are using their material on a website, please do this. They are often seeking validation of the usefulness of the materials they are providing via the Internet. Your statement of use may contribute to the author's promotion and tenure.

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