Copyright at the Fund

Being authorized to use third-party content does not mean you are authorized to share it widely. 

Please remember:

• Content licensed only for certain users is not to be shared with non-authorized users, even when they are IMF colleagues. 
• Do not store restricted content in network drives and databases where it may be accessed by non-authorized users.
• Do not share your login credentials to data services, subscriptions, etc.
• Forwarding and sharing content from single-user subscriptions is generally not permitted.
• For external sharing of licensed content, be sure to check permitted usage rights. See below.

Please see the tips and tools below to help you share content safely:

Data Licensed to the IMF: Please check the permitted use for each data service. Internal sharing and storing should only provide access to authorized users. For external sharing, whilst many licenses allow portions of the data to be included in the work of the Fund, there are some exceptions and terms vary, so be sure to check. Also, please note that licensed data is only to be used for Fund work. 

Data you may have used in previous jobs or at university: Please do not use such data in your work at the Fund and do not share with Fund colleagues or store in Fund databases. Please check with the Library to see whether the Fund is properly licensed for the same datasets. 

Content from licensed Publications, Journals:  Such materials generally cannot be shared outside the IMF. For specific usage terms, check with the publisher's website or the Library. You can also check if your planned use is covered via the Fund's arrangement with the Copyright Clearance Center (see below). 

News articles: Share links to the article or use any of the “tools” the media outlet may provide for sharing the article. Do not cut and paste the article in an email. If you need to make photocopies of the article check if photocopying is covered by our arrangements with the Copyright Clearance Center (see below).

Individual subscriptions: Do not share your credentials associated with online subscriptions; only use the sharing tools provided to share the content; do not systematically download and share content with others. Also, if your subscription is limited to one reader/user, do not put the material on auto-forward to a group.

PDFs and other files: Avoid sharing the actual files; share links to the material instead.

eBooks: If an eBook is licensed to you only, do not share it with others.

IMF Content: IMF employees are not authorized to approve reuse of IMF material; any requests for reusing IMF content should be forwarded to copyright@IMF.org. Do not share content on the intranet with external parties. Also, content not cleared for external use cannot be shared outside of the IMF.

You may use RightFind Advisor, a database the IMF subscribes to from the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). The CCC is a rights clearing center that has reciprocal arrangements with different publishers.  Under this license with the CCC, some usage rights have already been negotiated for IMF users and you can look up what they include. 

In addition, when you look up publications and journals in Library Search, certain icons and usage information will be available for resources for which certain usage rights have been obtained through the CCC license.