According to the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, clause 8,

The Congress shall have power . . . to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.

The U.S. Constitution paved the path for the development of Title 17 of the U.S. Code, as well as the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 and each subsequent amendment that outlined what it means to be copyright protected; types of materials that are copyright protected; fair use; how copyright pertains to colleges and universities; and much more (U.S. Copyright Office, 2011). Copyright laws are very complex and can be difficult to understand. The following introductory information is meant to help us begin to understand copyright laws better so that we don't infringe upon the rights of copyright holders. The content covered in this article includes definitions, NCFR copyright assignment forms, and implications of sharing your research online. (Please note: The information provided in this article does not pertain to articles in the public domain or that have been published as open access.)

Definitions

According to Section 106 of the U.S. Copyright Act, copyright is a protection automatically extended by the government to the copyright holder that provides the exclusive right to reproduce, or copy, the materials; create derivatives of the materials; distribute copies of the materials; and publically display or perform the materials, including the public display of audio recordings through digital audio transmission (Copyright Clearance Center, 2011; U.S. Copyright Office, 2011, 2012). Copyrighted materials include materials in a written or recorded format.

The copyright holder is the owner of the copyright protected materials (U.S. Copyright Office, 2012). In some cases, but not all, the copyright holder is the author of the materials. If the author signs a copyright release form, for example, that explicitly transfers the copyright to a third party, the author no longer holds the copyright to that material; the third party now has it. For example, many NCFR members write articles for publication in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Marriage and Family (JMF), Family Relations (FR), or the Journal of Family Theory & Review (JFTR). In this instance, authors are asked to sign a Copyright Assignment Form relinquishing copyright ownership to NCFR.

The author of copyrighted materials also is not the copyright holder of materials if the materials were "works made for hire," in which case the employer is the copyright holder (Copyright Clearance Center, 2012). For example, although I am the author of this current article, NCFR is the copyright holder because the article is written as part of my employment. Another example of works made for hire includes commissioned work, such as an author being invited to write an article or brief for NCFR.

NCFR Copyright Assignment Form

As stated above, when an article is accepted for publication in one of NCFR's three journals, the author (or first author on behalf of all authors) is asked to sign the Copyright Assignment Form with the journal and Wiley-Blackwell, NCFR's publisher. This form explicitly outlines author rights prior to and after acceptance. For the purposes of educating readers about copyright as it pertains to NCFR, the following material outlines the author rights as they appear in the Copyright Assignment Forms for JMF, FR, and JFTR.

Prior to acceptance: We ask that as part of the publishing process you [the author(s)] acknowledge that the Article has been submitted to the Journal. You will not prejudice acceptance if you use the unpublished Article, in form and content as submitted for publication in the Journal, in the following ways:

• sharing print or electronic copies of the Article with colleagues;
• posting an electronic version of the Article on your own personal website, on your employer's website/repository and on free public servers in your subject area.

After acceptance: Provided that you give appropriate acknowledgement to the Journal, National Council on Family Relations and Blackwell Publishing [Wiley-Blackwell], and full bibliographic reference for the Article when it is published, you may use the accepted version of the Article as originally submitted for publication in the Journal, and updated to include any amendments made after peer review, in the following ways:

• you may share print or electronic copies of the Article with colleagues;
• you may use all or part of the Article and abstract, without revision or modification, in personal compilations or other publications of your own work;
• you may use the Article within your employer's institution or company for educational or research purposes, including use in course packs;
• 12 months after publication you may post an electronic version of the Article on your own personal website, on your employer's website/repository and on free public servers in your subject area. Electronic versions of the accepted Article must include a link to the published version of the Article together with the following text: "The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com."

Please note that you are not permitted to post the Blackwell Publishing [Wiley-Blackwell] PDF version of the Article online.

Please note: You retain the following rights to reuse the Article, as long as you do not sell or reproduce the Article or any part of it for commercial purposes (i.e. for monetary gain on your own account or on that of a third party, or for indirect financial gain by a commercial entity.) These rights apply without needing to seek permission from Blackwell Publishing [Wiley-Blackwell].

(JMF, FR, and JFTR Copyright Assignment Forms, no dates; see for example JFTR's Copyright Assignment Form.)

Implications of sharing your research online

Given copyright laws and the Copyright Assignment Form authors sign when publishing in an NCFR journal, it should be clear as to what authors can and cannot do with respect to their articles. Okay, so it's not crystal clear—after all, copyright laws are complex. (I'm still trying to get a better understanding of the laws, too.) Because the laws are complex, it is important to understand, from a copyright holder's perspective, what authors can and cannot do with their articles with specific reference to posting the Wiley-Blackwell PDF version of the article on the Internet.

Many faculty rightfully want to share their research to help expand the impact of their research. For example, many individuals post their articles on personal websites or on university faculty web pages. Others like to post their articles on websites like ResearchGate and Academia.edu. Individuals are now also increasingly being asked to post their research in their university's depository or in their online annual review portfolios. We live in a technology-oriented era in which information is easily accessible and shared and thus can increase the impact of your research. However, because of copyright laws afforded by the U.S. Copyright Act, and the Copyright Assignment Forms authors sign, individuals must be careful as to how they share their published articles.

Many individuals like to post the PDF of their published article as viewed in the journal in the places noted above. When examining the Copyright Assignment Form closely though, one will note that the form explicitly details that authors are not permitted to post the PDF of the published article online. Posting the actual PDF of the article online is a copyright infringement and "puts members at risk of getting into trouble for copyright infringement" (Cushman, 2014 p. 5). Instead, authors are permitted to post the accepted article—as a Word document, for example—online on a personal website, a university depository or website, and in free public servers 12 months after publication, according to the Copyright Assignment Forms. When posting the accepted article online, it must include the statement "The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com."

Authors also are allowed to cite their article online with a link to Wiley-Blackwell where individuals can download the article PDF directly from Wiley-Blackwell. In both cases, proper attribution is necessary. Unfortunately, the implication of researchers posting the PDF version of their published article online is that some individuals are unintentionally infringing on the copyrights of NCFR.

So, why does it matter if researchers post PDF versions of published articles online? Doesn't posting the article online increase one's visibility and the impact of one's research? Of course, posting one's research online has the potential for increasing one's impact on the field, and NCFR wants to expand the impact of members' research. However, posting the PDF of the accepted article directly on the Internet allows free access of the article worldwide, thereby negatively affecting journal article sales and NCFR's revenue stream (Cushman, 2014).

Conclusion

In reading through this article, many questions are likely to arise: What about posting article PDFs in classroom management systems for online learning?, What about fair use?, What — I'm breaking copyright laws?, How can I share my research to expand its impact?, What about open access?, and many more. These are excellent questions, and they will be answered in future articles that will expand on copyright and permission laws.

In the meantime, please remember that NCFR is the copyright holder of all articles published in JMF, FR, and JFTR, and only NCFR has the right afforded by law to distribute PDF copies of the articles and to publically display the articles (Copyright Clearance Center, 2011; U.S. Copyright Office, 2011, 2012).

It is kindly requested that authors who have posted PDF articles of their journal articles on the Internet, in any location, remove them. Feel free to follow the two suggestions stated above. For additional information on copyright, please also read Diane Cushman's article, "Intellectual Assets — Safeguarding and Sharing," in the Winter 2014 issue of the Report, and visit the websites of copyright experts such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the U.S. Copyright Office. Remember, my door is always open if you have any questions.

Please note: I am not a lawyer; the information contained in this article is not meant to provide legal advice.

References

Copyright Clearance Center. (2011). Copyright essentials for business: An overview of U.S. copyright law and licensing solutions.

Copyright Clearance Center. (2012). Copyright fundamentals (One-module eLearning certificate course). Danvers, MA: Author.

Cushman, D. (2014). Executive Review: Intellectual Assets—Safeguarding and Sharing. National Council on Family Relations Report, 59(4), 5.

U.S. Copyright Office. (2011). Copyright law of the United States and related laws contained in Title 17 of the United States Code (Circular 92).

U.S. Copyright Office. (2012). Copyright basics (Circular 1).

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