CC-BY Copyright Requirements
What is copyright?
Copyright provides protection for original works of authorship. Because Neuromatch, Inc. operates under a U.S. organization, we will need to abide by U.S. copyright laws .
All Academy material will be published under CC BY license.
See the multiple types of CC BY below. All are acceptable.
CC (‘ Creative Commons ‘) licenses are one of several public copyright licenses that enable free distribution of content. A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that the author has created.
There are lots of different CC licenses. CC BY is the most generous as it “lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.”
All content published by us (tutorial code, tutorial videos, lecture power point slides, etc) will be published under a CC BY license. This means the content-creators are giving others permission to reuse your content. This also means we can’t publish content that we don’t own, or that isn’t already under a CC BY license.
For all figures in your course content, you must attribute credit and indicate the copyright type.
Ideally, attribution should include the following:
Title: What is the name of the work?
Author: Who allows you to use the work?
Source: Where can people find the work?
License: how can you use the work?
Here is a reasonable example:
Even better would be:
(Zaniboni, M. Figure 6 found in A Computational View of the Historical Controversy on Animal Electricity, CC BY)
How can I check if the content (e.g. figures) I’m using is under CC BY?
You can check the copyright license of figures in your slides by checking the copyright aka ‘Rights and permissions’ section in the header of the article from which they originated. We can only use a figure or other content if it’s under a CC BY license.
There are multiple types of CC BY license . Because Neuromatch, Inc. is and educational nonprofit and the primary use of images is for education and not for commercial use, we can use content under any CC BY license.
Icon
Right
Description
CC BY
Credit MUST be given to the creator
CC BY SA
Adaptations MUST be shared under the same terms
CC BY NC
Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted
CC BY ND
No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted
Icons in the table above are typically combined when shown on journals and other publications. Some examples are shown below.
A rule of thumb is that any image that you yourself did not produce is likely to be subject to someone else’s copyright. It is important to note that some journals require that you assign the copyright to materials published in the journal. In other words, you may have assigned copyrights in figures that you created to certain journals upon publication. If you are submitting materials for publishing, most journals will negotiate the terms of the copyright license. Request to retain the copyright in the material, if you are able. Figures from most journals are not under a CC BY license. Indeed only a few journals are open source (e.g., eLife, eNeuro, JNeuroscie, bioRxiv, PLoS series). Figures from many places on the internet (except Wikipedia) are usually subject to copyright.
What do I do if the content I’m using isn’t under CC BY?
This happens often for figures from non-open journals like Science. This is a pain. The best course of action is to use a different figure with a CC BY version from bioRxiv or with a similar figure published in an open source journal or a new figure that you create yourself.
- Replace the figure using an open-source resource. Below are resources specifically for neuroscience. If your field is different, you’ll need to do some research.
- Is there a similar figure from a pre-print on bioRxiv (still check copyright)? Look under “Info/History” for copyright information.
- Is there a similar figure in an open source journal?
- Open source journals: eNeuro , JNeurosci (if article is older than 6 months), JNP , J Neural Engineering (if article is older than 12 months), eLife , bioRxiv
- If it’s a schematic, can you create a new figure yourself or find something similar online?
- Creators should create new and original figures that are not subject to someone else's copyright claim or restrictions.
- Wikipedia is public domain so all content is CC BY.
- Scholarpedia also has some CC BY content but check.
- Recreating a figure with the same facts.
- The facts that a figure presents are not Copyright, but they way in which they are presented is.
- There are a few very specific things that are not subject to Copyright
- In some circumstances, figures may just include facts that really cannot be displayed differently. Below is a general graph or chart that displays notable points on the graph. It would be reasonable to assume that this graph is not subject to copyright protection because it is simply a presentation of facts in essentially the only way the facts may be expressed.
- Request permission from the copy-right owner using this template (please adapt as needed with the correct Academy info)
As a last resort, you can formally request permission from the copyright owner. This may be the publisher or the author. Some bioRxiv articles for instance have copyright owned by the author. There is sometimes a fee (~$35-$100) to reuse figures in journals that are not open-source. If you must go this route, keep your receipt and NMA will reimburse you. Each journal has their own rules for how to do this. Look for the “Reprints and Permissions" link or similar, which is often at the end of the chapter or article. Ensure that you fill out the form to not just allow one specific re-use, but CC BY re-use in general. If this fee turns out to be hundreds/thousands of dollars please check with us before paying the fee, and/or explore other options for replacing the figure as described above!
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Dear [author or publisher],
I am writing on behalf of Neuromatch Academy (NMA)/ Climatematch Academy (CMA) to ask permission to replicate Figure [x] from publication “[title]” in materials being created for the Academy.
NMA is a volunteer-run organization developing a fully-virtual computational neuroscience course for thousands of students across the globe. Our materials include lecture videos and code-based tutorials, all of which will be freely available online (licensed under CC BY).
You can learn more about the academy here: https://academy.neuromatch.io/ / https://academy.climatematch.io/
Please let me know if you’re willing to give permission, or if you have any questions.
Thank you!
What do I do if none of the options above worked for me?
Contact your Day Lead or the Curriculum Chair and we’ll work something out.
Source
Copyright and legal advice for this article was provided by Rachel Jacques of Maschoff-Brennan, a copyright and intellectual property law firm in Park City, Utah in the United States.