To help you stay out of hot water, we start this page with the  NIH Catalyst article, Copyrighting Right, by Stephanie Cooperstein and Christopher Wanjek. You will learn about misconceptions (What is fair use? Can I put that cartoon in my slide show?) and how to address them.

Copyright Basics: Fair Use includes a checklist for determining whether use of content falls under Fair Use guidelines.

Copyright Law is defined in Title 17 of the United States Code.  Circular 92, Chapter 1 provides subject matter coverage and scope.

Copyright Links from CENDI, an interagency working group of senior scientific and technical information (STI) managers from 13 U.S. federal agencies.

Copyright Management is a University of Maryland University College site with links to guides about securing permission to use copyrighted materials in various formats.

PMC Copyright Notice provides copyright guidelines for the use of journal articles found in PubMed Central. Included are guidelines for use of the Public Domain journals  Emerging Infectious Diseases and Preventing Chronic Disease.
 
Plagiarism
Wikipedia defines plagiarism as "the practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else's written or creative work, in whole or in part, into one's own without adequate acknowledgement."

Request Consultation (for NIH Staff)
Request copyright or legal guidance from the Office of the General Counsel

Training
The University of Maryland University College's Center for Intellectual Property provides mulitmedia learning resources for students who want to become proficient on copyright and plagiarism. In addition, UMUC provides additional guides for creating citations and avoiding plagiarism. More general guidelines on copyright management can be found on the University College's CIP page.

Many other universities and colleges provide writing center websites that may provide additional assistance in defining copyright and avoiding plagiarism.  Among them are:
      
Cornell University  
Skill Guides: How to Find Specific Resources
Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States chart  2004-8 Peter B. Hirtle. Last updated 10 January, 2008. Use of this chart is governed by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License 3.0. 

Purdue University -- The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)

University of Wisconsin, Madison -- The Writing Center