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What We Do

Who We Are

Visibility

What is Research Visibility?

Research visibility includes the ability to showcase/highlight your work as a researcher through various platforms such as researcher profiles, and persistent identifiers. Once this foundation has been established, you are then able to show how your work has impacted the academic community through the use of impact factors, alternative metrics and citation/download counts, and other tools. To assist with making research more visible to the university community and the world, UML offers the following options to accomplish this goal. The items below are not exhaustive but offer a starting point for showcasing your research.

Benefits Of Understanding Research Visibility

By increasing the visibility of your research has tangible benfits, you can:

  • Demonstrate research impact for funding requests
  • Provide a greater understanding of the reach of your work
  • Learn how and where your work is being used and cited
  • Increase the impact your research has had in your field and community
  • Identify possible collaborators

(Li Y, Wu C, Yan E, Li K (2018)Swan, A. (2010)

Open Access Resources

Publishing open access means free, unrestricted access, and immediate availability of your scholarship to anyone in the world with an internet connection. The University of Miami Libraries have established publishing agreements (some are pilot programs) which provide researchers with qualifying articles the possibility of APC funding. For University of Miami authors to take advantage of these programs, each article’s corresponding author must be affiliated with the University. Additional information can be found on the Open Access Funding at UM Guide.

The benefits of publishing your work as Open Access include:

  • Author retains the copyright of their scholarship
  • Open Access articles are more visible and discoverable (Antelman 2004)
  • Accelerates scientific discovery
  • Greater availability may increase citation counts
  • Equitable access to information (Tennant 2016)

A list of Open Access Journals and can be found through the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). DOAJ is an index of diverse open access journals from around the world, with the mission is to increase the visibility, accessibility, reputation, usage and impact of quality, peer-reviewed, open access scholarly research journals globally, regardless of discipline, geography or language.

In addition, the University of Miami Libraries Open Access and Publishing page offers a variety of resources that can help assist on this topic.

References

Antelman, Kristin (2004). Do Open-Access Articles Have a Greater Research Impact? College & Research Libraries, Volume 65 (5). https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/15683

Li Y, Wu C, Yan E, Li K (2018) Will open access increase journal CiteScores? An empirical investigation over multiple disciplines. PLoS ONE 13 (8): e0201885. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201885

Swan, Alma (2010). The Open Access citation advantage: Studies and results to date. University of Southampton. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/268516/

Tennant JP, Waldner F, Jacques DC et al (2016). The academic, economic and societal impacts of Open Access: an evidence-based review [version 3; peer review: 4 approved, 1 approved with reservations]. F1000 Research , 5:632. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.8460.3

Where and How to Find Author Metrics

Journal Citation Reports
Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is a multidisciplinary database that presents statistical data useful for determining the relative importance of journals within 224 predefined subject categories.

SCOPUS
Scopus covers the life, physical, health, and social sciences. Scopus is a large abstract and citation database of research literature and web sources. Covering over 15,000 peer-reviewed titles from more than 4,000 international publishers, including coverage of  500 Open Access journals, 700 Conference Proceedings, 600 Trade Publications, and 125 Book Series. More than 60% of titles are from countries other than the US. Abstracts go back to 1966. References go back to 1996. 80% of content is indexed with controlled vocabularies. 100% coverage of Medline, including unique Medline journals. 28 million abstract records. 245 million references added to all abstracts. Scopus also covers 250 million quality web sources, including 13 million patents. Web sources are searched via Scirus, including author homepages, university sites, and resources such as the preprint servers CogPrints and ArXiv.org, and OAI-compliant resources.

Web of Science Citation Indexes
Web of Science, published by Thomson Reuters, is a multi-disciplinary database that provides integrated access to over 8,000 key research journals indexed in: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Science Citation Index, and Arts and Humanities Citation Index. There are two main ways to search the database: --- select General Search to search for articles by subject term, author name, journal title, or author affiliation --- select Cited Reference Search to search for articles that cite an author or article that you specify. Web of Knowledge features citation searching, email alerts, and links to the full text of many items.

Google Scholar @ UM
Search Google Scholar with direct links to University of Miami Library Resources. Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities, and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research. If you are within the UM campus or, if from Scholar Preferences you select the University of Miami Libraries, your Google Scholar results will include direct links to items available at UM.  If this information is in a subscription database, you will be prompted to log in with your CaneID username and password.

Terms to Know

Impact Factor: measure of the number of times an average paper in a journal is cited, during a year. Impact factor ranges and averages vary by discipline but, overall, higher impact factor values denote a journal has a greater impact. Used only for journals.

H-Index: standard scholarly metric in which the number of published papers, and the number of times their author is cited, is put into relation. Overall, a higher h-index denotes an author or journal has been cited more often than a lower h-index. Used for researchers and journals.

Altmetrics: short for "alternative metrics," used to describe non-traditional/emerging methods of research output, such as shares on social media sites. Used for individual publications.

Using Journal Citation Reports to Find Impact Factors

 

Resources To Help Improve Visibility and Impact

Open Access Funding at UM - The University of Mami Libraries have established publishing agreements (some are pilot programs) which provide researchers with qualifying articles the possibility of APC funding.

University of Miami Libraries Guide for Researchers - Guide intended for researchers at the University of Miami that provides resources for grants, funding, research compliance and many other topics involving research and publishing.

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) - An Open Researcher and Contributor ID is a registry of unique identifiers for researchers and scholars that is open, non-proprietary, transparent, mobile, and community-based. ORCID provides a universal persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher. ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) - is a free, unique, persistent identifier (PID) for individuals to use as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. (orcid.org)

Scholarship@Miami - This portal preserves and provides access to selected research and scholarly works prepared by faculty, students, and staff of the University of Miami. This platform is another option when trying to disseminate your research. 

Scholarship@Miami Researcher profiles - Individual profiles of researchers at the University of Miami. Profiles include research output, grants, as well as information about a researcher's affiliations, research interests and contact information.

University of Miami Libraries Open Access Publishing Guide - This page is a one stop shop for University of Miami Libraries resources on Open Access.

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) - A guide to help providing information, answer questions and identify services the University of Miami Libraries provides regarding DOI's.

Copyright Essentials

What is copyright?

The term “copyright” encompasses all the exclusive rights that an owner of an intellectual property has in relation to this property.

What are the requirements for a work to be considered under copyright?

Work must be created by a human, in other words work has to be original.
work should embrace a minimal level of creativity, (otherwise they considered to be a copy of another work
work have to be fixed in a tangible form/medium of expression which secures a long-term presence, within which it can be copied, reproduced and so forth.
Why is Copyright Important?

Copyright is important, because it constitutes a federal law, in other words, not a state or municipal). According to the Constitution: Copyright aims securing authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respective writings and discoveries. The aim of copyright is to promote the progress of science & arts.

Copyright Duration

According to 1976 Copyright Act, which was in effect from January 1st 1978, the length of copyright covers the life of author plus 70 years.
Regarding works made for hire, as well as anonymous and pseudonymous works the duration of copyright is 95 years from first publication or 120 years from the date of creation (whichever expires first) 

Additional Resorces

Copyright Protection

What types of works does copyright protect?

  • Literary works
  • Sound recordings
  • Audiovisual works
  • Sound recordings
  • Dramatic works
  • Software
  • Pictorial,  graphic and sculptural works
  • Pantomimes and choreography
  • Architectural works

What types of work does copyright not protect?

  • Short phrases
  • Titles
  • Names of companies
  • Ideas 
  • Facts
  • Processes
  • Procedures
  • Systems
  • Methods
  • Concepts
  • Discoveries

Copyright protects the expression of an idea, however it does not protect the idea itself. Additionally, In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work. 

Trademarks versus Patents

The purpose of trademarks, is to provide distinguishable differentiation between goods and services from each other so that the consumer is not confused. 

Patents on the other hand, are inventions. There are three types of patents those being utility (for inventions with practical worth), design and plant (e.g. scientific patents-medicines).

Copyright Office

A work is protected in terms of copyright since the moment it was created. That means, registering a work with  Copyright Office is not necessary, however it provides benefits. Therefore, registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is not required, but recommended.

Useful Copyright Office Links:

Circulars : Learn about: Foundations of Copyright, Office Practices & Procedures, Copyright Concepts, Copyright Registration for Visual Arts Works, Performing Arts Works, Literary Works and more!

Copyright Registration for Creators: Copyright for Musicians, Photographers, Writers, Visual & Graphic Artists

Guide to Privacy and Publicity Rights

Privacy and publicity rights are separate bodies of law from copyright. Where copyright protects the copyright ownerʼs property rights in a work, privacy and publicity rights protect the interests of the subject of a work (such as the person who is depicted in a photograph). Issues of privacy and publicity may arise when a researcher contemplates the use of letters, diary entries, photographs or content in visual, audio, and print formats o en found in library collections.

Privacy and publicity rights are governed by state laws and vary state-by-state.

  • Many states have privacy and/or publicity laws, while others do not recognize such rights.
  • Some states address comparable rights under other state laws or common law legal theories such as misappropriation and false representation. What may be permitted in one state may not be permitted in another.
  • Note also that related causes of action may be pursued under the federal Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1125 (a), for example, for unauthorized uses of a personʼs identity in order to create a false endorsement.
  • Keep in min d that while ʻfair useʼ is a defense to copyright infringement, it is not a defense to claimsof violation of privacy or publicity rights.

While an individualʼs right to privacy generally ends when the individual dies, publicity rights associated with the commercial value connected with an individualʼs name, image or voice may continue. Many University of Miami Libraries Understanding Copyright estates or representatives of famous authors, musicians, actors, photographers, politicians, sports figures, celebrities, and other public figures continue to control and license the uses of those figuresʼ names, likenesses, signature or other aspects of oneʼs persona that may have commercial value.

Under the First Amendment of the US Constitution which protects freedom of speech, the use of a work to comment on a matter of public interest is less likely to trigger liability than use in advertising or for other commercial purposes. Yet risk may still exist if the person depicted is held up to ridicule or presented in a libelous manner.

Patrons desiring to use materials must make their own decision as to privacy or publicity rights that may be implicated by the nature of the materials and the proposed use. Keep in mind that such clearances are separate from any necessary copyright clearances.

The 6 Exclusive Rights of an Owner

Under 17 U.S. Code § 106 an owner has the exclusive rights of:

  1. Reproduction: e.g. making copies of a work or phone records
  2. Derivative works: e.g. translation, or making a screenplay out of a comic book, creating an arrangement of a song that you wrote
  3. Public distribution: e.g. selling a work or uploading the work on a website available for downloading
  4. Public Performance: e.g. performing your work on a theater, screening your movie in an auditorium
  5. Public Display: e.g. uploading a work on a website, posting it on social media, displaying a work on a gallery
  6. For Sound Recordings: perform the work in public, by means of digital audio transmission

 

 

DISCLAIMER: What is presented here is not legal advice and should not be taken as such. This information is presented to provide guidance to the University Community regarding library materials and resources and copyright, permissions, and related services. If a specific concern or question is not addressed in this guide, you are still responsible for compliance U.S. Copyright Law.

Tools to Help You Find Where to Publish

Open Access Funding at UM

The University of Mami Libraries have established publishing agreements (some are pilot programs) which provide researchers with qualifying articles the possibility of APC funding. Open Access publications have been known to be cited more frequently and therefore increasing the visibility and impact of the research (Antelman 2004).

DOAJ - The Directory of Open Access Journals
DOAJ works to  to increase the visibility, accessibility, reputation, usage and impact of quality, peer-reviewed, open access scholarly research journals.  Listed journals must meet the DOAJ quality and integrity standards. Look up journals by topic, easily see Journal processing fees and copyright/reuse policies

JANE - The Journal/Author Name Estimator
Enter keywords or an entire abstract and JANE will suggest journals by comparing your input to millions of documents in PubMed to find the matching journals.

Master Journal List Manuscript Matcher
Curated tool to help you to find the right journal for your needs across multiple indices hosted on the Web of Science platform.

Scopus Journal Analyzer
Provides insight into journal performance and compares journal rankings.

SPI-Hub - The Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Center for Knowledge Management
This tool attempts to provide authors with information on journal quality, rigor, and transparency to aid informed decision making on publishing venues.

Springer Journal Suggester
Enter your manuscript details to see a list of Springer journals suitable for your research. Filter by open access status, impact factor, and more.

 

References

Antelman, Kristin (2004). Do Open-Access Articles Have a Greater Research Impact? College & Research Libraries, Volume 65 (5). https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/15683

 

Think. Check. Submit.

 

Helpful Resources

Think, Check, Submit
The Think, Check, Submit process will help you discover what you need to know when assessing whether or not a journal is a suitable venue for your research.

Where to Publish Your Research: Identifying Potential Journals
A guide from the Duquesne University Library

Subject Specialist

Definition of Scholarly Communication

According to ACRL, scholarly communication is “the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use. The system includes both formal means of communication, such as publication in peer – reviewed journals, and informal channels, such as electronic mailing lists.”
Scholarly communication librarians have a crucial role in every aspect of the system of scholarly communication, from the creation of new knowledge to its evaluation, dissemination, and preservation”.

Scholarly Communication Services


Book a consultation with me whenever you need assistance with:

  • your Scholarship@Miami profile support
  • copyright, fair use, public domain, author's rights, copyright for teaching and instruction, creative commons, campus copyright services, publishing and more
  • open access models, transformative agreements, article processing charges (APCs), and open access publishers  provided by the UML such as: Institute of Physics (IOP), PLOS, Scholarship@Miami and Wiley
  • identifying reputable journals and avoid predatory publishers

  My areas of activities in Scholarship@Miami include:

  • collecting, managing storing, and preserving faculty, staff and students’ research output
  • enhancing/correcting researchers’ profiles manually or by other methods provided by the system
  • importing grants
  • providing help to researchers with general concerns related to the repository
  • facilitating the collection, storage and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations
  • providing statistics in support of outreach and education
  • providing faculty activity reporting




 

Find items in the Public Domain

Introduction

On January 1, 2024, thousands of copyrighted works from 1928 enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1923. They are free for all to copy, share, and build upon. This year’s highlights include Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence and The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman and Cole Porter’s Let’s Do It, and a trove of sound recordings from 1923. And, of course, 2024 marks the long-awaited arrival of Steamboat Willie – featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse – into the public domain. That story is so fascinating, so rich in irony, so rife with misinformation about what you will be able to do with Mickey and Minnie now that they are in the public domain that it deserved its own article, “Mickey, Disney, and the Public Domain: a 95-year Love Triangle".
 

Public Domain Day

The tables below illustrate the timeline for works to enter into the public domain.

Published Works  
Time of Publication in the U.S. Conditions Public Domain Status
Before 1923 None In public domain.
Between 1923 and 1978 Published without a copyright notice In public domain.
Between 1978 and 1 March 1989 Published without a notice and without subsequent registration In public domain.
Between 1978 and 1 March 1989

 

 

Published without a notice but with subsequent registration 70 years after death of author, or if work of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation.
Between 1923 and 1963 Published with notice but copyright was not renewed In public domain.
Between 1923 and 1963 Published with notice but copyright was renewed 95 years after publication date.
Between 1964 and 1978

 

 

Published with notice 70 years after death of author, or if work of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation.
Between 1978 and 1 March 1989

 

 

Published with notice 70 years after death of author, or if work of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation.
After 1 March 1989 None 70 years after death of author, or if work of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation.

Unpublished Works
Type of Work Copyright Term What Became Public Domain on 1 January 2003 in the U.S.
Unpublished works Life of the author + 70 years Works from authors who died before 1933.
Unpublished anonymous and pseudonymous works, and works made for hire (corporate authorship) 120 years from date of creation Works created before 1883.
Unpublished works created before 1978 that are published before 1 January 2003 Life of the author + 70 years or 31 December 2047, whichever is greater Nothing. The soonest the publications can enter the public domain is 1 January 2048.
Unpublished works created before 1978 that are published after 31 December 2002 Life of the author + 70 years Works of authors who died before 1933.
Unpublished works when the death date of the author is not known 120 years from date of creation Works created before 1883.

 

Tables in Russell, Carrie Complete Copyright an Everyday Guide for Librarians. Chicago: American Library Association, 2004 (10, 14)

Fair Use Guidelines

The Fair Use provision, established in the Copyright Act of 1976, is designed to allow the limited use of copyrighted works for the purpose of criticism, comment, teaching, scholarship and research. It allows limited reproduction of copyrighted works for educational and research purposes without prior authorization of the copyright holder and without paying royalty fees.

Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act lists four factors used to determine when content usage may be considered "fair use." For a finding of fair use, all four factors do not need to be affirmative, and no single factor trumps the other factors.

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether the copied material will be for nonprofit, educational, or commercial use. Also considered here is the tranformative nature of the use. For example, was the material used in a way significantly different than was originally intended (e.g. criticism or instruction), or was something created that was significantly different than the original material.

2. The nature of the copyrighted work, with special consideration given to the distinction between a factual work and a creative work. For example, photocopies made of a newspaper or news magazine column are more likely to be considered fair use than copies made of a musical score or a short story.

3. The amount, substantiality, or portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole. This factor requires consideration of:

  • the proportion of the larger work that is copied and used
  • the significance of the copied portion

4. The effect of the use on the potential market of the copyrighted work. If the reproduction of a copyrighted work reduces the potential market and sales and therefore the potential profits of the copyright owner, then use is unlikely to be found a fair use. For example, a teacher who photocopies a workbook page or a textbook chapter is depriving the copyright owner of profits more directly than if copying one page from the daily paper. This factor has recently held more weight in determining fair use.

 

Fair Use in Academic and Research Libraries

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), provides a "Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries". This document, emphasizes on 8 situations according to which libraries are qualified to apply fair use practices on copyrighted materials. The document analyzes 8 principles of fair use, and expands each of them to limitations and enhancements. 

Summarizing the 8 fair use principles by ARL, these are the following:

  • "Supporting teaching and learning with access to library materials via digital technologies". Fair use results from the fact that digital format of courses occur in a non-commercial environment, supported by "place-shifting" rationale according to Section 110 of Copyright Act, and are of transformative value. Limitations could be: the amount of the copyrighted material used, the duration of the exposed material which should be the same with the duration of the course, the purpose of use, availability only to registered students and so forth.
  • "Using selections from collection materials to publicize a library's activities, or to create physical and virtual exhibitions". This fair use principle is supported by section 109 of Copyright Act, and can be enhanced by the transformativeness aspect in a physical or virtual exhibition. 
  • "Digitizing to preserve at-risk items" It is essential for libraries to preseve materials especially whenever their formats become obsolete and degradated. For instance one category of this type of material may be: magnetic tapes, open reel tapes, VHS, and so forth.  Without preservation form libraries, these materials would completely dissapear and would not serve any purpose in the future such as: commentary, criticism, justaxposition and so forth.
  • "Creating digital collections of archival and special collections materials" Fair use is supported by the educational purpose of presenting these rare materials and the support of criticism, commentary, and transformativeness.
  • "Reproducing material for use by disabled students, faculty, staff, and other appropriate users" This fair use practice is very significant, as it enables people with disabilities to be be equal part of the community.
  • "Mainteining the integrity of works deposited in institutional repositories"  Libraries comply with the researchers fair use rights when the latest accept their works to be deposited in the Institutional Repository and make them publicly available via open access. 
  • "Creating databases to facilitate non consumptive research uses (including search)" A significant aspect of libraries' role is to provide reference materials indexes, finding aids, and databases in order to facilitate users' experience of searching and retrieving information. Providing analytics, meta-analysis data and statistics is of high- transformative value.
  • "Collecting material posted on the world wide web and making it available" This practice has transformative importance considering the fact that collected material from the Internet acquires new context when it is deposited on a curated historical archive. 

 

Association of Research Libraries. Code of best practices in fair use for academic and research libraries. Association of Research Libraries, 2012.

Please note that if a specific concern or question is not addressed in this guide, that does not alleviate you of the responsibility to comply with the U.S. Copyright Law.

Types of licenses

BY - Attribution
This License term is shared by all the Creative Commons licenses and requires that any user of the material who needs permission under copyright law provide attribution to the original work and author

SA-Share Alike
This license requires that any derivative works based on the original work must be licenced under the same license as the parent work.

NC-Non Commercial
The NonCommercial license term requires that any uses of the work are not primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monwtary compensation. The evaluation of noncommercial depends upon the use, not the user.

ND-NoDerivatives
The No Derivatives license term prohibits the distribution of derivative works based on the original work.

Public Domain Dedication (CC-0) 
The CC-0 (zero) license is a dedication to the public domain and thus the creators associated with a CC-0 licensed item have waived all their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, thus placing it in the public domain.

Public Domain Marker (CC-PD)
The CC-PD or Public Domain Marker is used to indicate that an item is believed to be in the public domain. While both CC-0 and CC-PD indicate work in the public domain, they differ in an important way. CC-0 is used to place work that belongs to the licensor, or rights holder, in the public domain by waiving their rights, CC-PD is used to indicate that work is already in the public domain. 

Bonn, M., Bolick, J., and Cross, W., eds (2023). Scholarly Communication Librarianship and Open Knowledge. Association of College and Research Libraries, 109-110





 

Learn More

Learn more about the types of licenses at Creative Commons:
https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/