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Copyright and the Regulation of Orphan Works: A Comparative Review of Seven Jurisdictions, and a Rights Clearance Simulation
No full textAbout
This report is a collaboration between the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management (www.cippm.org.uk), Bournemouth University (BU), the Department for Human Resources & Organisational Behaviour, The Business School, BU, and CREATe, the RCUK Centre for Copyright & New Business Models (www.create.ac.uk).
The Hargreaves Review stated: “The problem of orphan works – works to which access is effectively barred because the copyright holder cannot be traced – represents the starkest failure of the copyright framework to adapt.” (Digital Opportunity: A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth; London: Intellectual Property Office; 2011; p. 38).
This report was commissioned by the Intellectual Property Office to support the implementation of the Hargreaves Review. It aims to offer a clearer understanding of how orphan works are regulated and priced in other jurisdictions, and how a pricing system could be structured to ensure that “parents” are fairly remunerated if they re-appear, and users are incentivised to access and exploit registered orphan works.
Executive Summary
‘Orphan works’ are works in which copyright still subsists, but where the rightholder, whether it be the creator of the work or successor in title, cannot be located.
This report was commissioned to assist the UK government in evaluating policy options in the implementation of the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property & Growth (2011) to enable and price the use of orphan works.
The research proceeded in two stages. Study I undertook a comparative international review of actual or proposed orphan works legislation, and identified key characteristics of orphan works licensing schemes. Study II investigated the potential effects of such schemes by conducting a simulated rights clearance exercise for six scenarios (establishing licence terms and fees for specific commercial and non-commercial uses), and analysing the resulting dataset for effects of the characteristics identified in Study I.
I. Comparative Review
The comparative review relied on a close scrutiny of actual or proposed legislation and considered government reports, draft bills, publications and other commentaries on the orphan works issue. The countries reviewed included jurisdictions with operational orphan works regulations: Canada, Denmark, Hungary, India, and Japan; as well as provisions at the EU level and in the US (draft legislation and current practice). The purpose of the review was to identify key features of legal regimes with respect to factors such as – (i) categories of works covered; (ii) standards of diligent search; (iii) the mechanism for obtaining permission; (iv) the existence of a register or database of recording suspected orphan works; (v) the role of collecting societies;(vi) tariffs set by category of work; (vii) mechanisms for challenging tariffs; (viii) remedies for reappearing authors and case law, if any, on damages for infringing use.
Findings Study I:
(1) Two distinct approaches appear to be used for governing orphan works in the jurisdictions reviewed. The first may be labelled ‘ex-ante’, and involves rights clearing before a work is used, the second is ‘ex-post’ and typically involves the management of infringement risks by the user.
In the former an applicant is required to engage with an authorising body or collecting society in order to receive a licence to make use of an orphan work. In contrast, the latter involves either the creation of a statutory copyright exception, or a limitation of liability where an applicant makes use of an orphan work after having exerted some effort to identify the potential rightholder (e.g. diligent search, attribution). These regimes provide different levels of protection for authors and users.
The ex-ante approach is exemplified by Canada, Japan and India where a potential user has to discuss terms with a copyright board. In ex-post systems payment is only due in case an author reappears. This approach is exemplified by the US. The analysis shows a strong protection for rightholders, both ex ante and ex post, in India, and Japan; and a relatively lower protection in the US, and to a certain extent Denmark (under the system of Extended Collective Licensing). Canada and Hungary are intermediate cases (e.g. no advertising requirements prior to use, but public listing of granted licences).
(2) While most jurisdictions require a diligent search to be conducted by the applicant there is no uniform standard constituting a diligent search. Across jurisdictions the specifications for diligent search vary considerably. Requirements involving the preventive search of the author range from the weak provisions of Denmark (no search required), Canada (requiring “reasonable effort”), and the US (“reasonable search” required) to the strong provisions of India, Japan, Hungary and the EU (but not France) providing a duty for the user of performing a “diligent search” or “due diligence search” (India) accompanied by some form of record tracking of the steps performed. The EU lists minimum sources for a diligent search in the Annex to the Orphan Works Directive. Advertising requirements (in the national press or equivalent) are provided in Japan and India.
(3) The United States had proposed a “limited liability” approach, under which the use of orphan works is possible after a reasonable search. In the case of an infringement claim orphan users are liable only for a reasonable compensation. Denmark uses an Extended Collective Licensing system, which involves collective negotiation with users (normally for multiple licensing) valid also for non-represented authors. In turn, the EU leaves Member States free to choose their regulatory approach (for example, France has chosen a central licensing system in its forthcoming legislation). All the other countries reviewed implement the central licensing system, with a central public authority granting copyright licences on orphan works.
(4) Prices are set by central authorities in the countries that have a central licensing system, and by collecting societies in Denmark. Interestingly, national central authorities have claimed that although no official negotiation process is provided by law, the price of licences is set on a case by case basis, after considering the individual circumstances of the applicant. Set prices can be challenged mostly in an ordinary court of law in the examined countries, or alternatively before the licensing authority with a quasi-judicial procedure (e.g. Canada). Infringement claims are handled by ordinary courts in all countries (including the US) or by licensing authorities with quasi-judicial procedures (in Hungary). In Denmark, both prices and infringement claims are under the jurisdiction of a special tribunal (the Copyright Licensing Tribunal). The above rules on price, infringement, and legal remedies do not derive from EU law, which leaves these matters to Member States.
(5) In Canada, Japan, India, Denmark and France an upfront payment is normally required byte applicant in exchange for using orphan works. In Canada, payment is upfront in approximately two-thirds of cases, whilst it is contingent on the rightholder reappearing in the remaining third. See De Beer and Bouchard (2010). In Hungary the amount is identified but may not be deposited (for non-profit licensees). It will be paid directly to the rightholder, in the event that he or she reappears. In the US, no payment is made until a court decision is issued, following an infringement claim.
Particular roles are envisaged for collecting societies in Denmark, in which they handle the whole system, Hungary, where collecting societies retain unclaimed revenues after five years from expiry of licence, and Canada, where collecting societies are consulted during tariff setting, and hold collected fees (to be used as they see fit).
(6) In the US, in Hungary, and France a voluntary public online register for suspected orphan works is established. The EU is establishing a register at the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM). In Japan, some institutions have their own register of orphan works. No register is envisaged in India, Canada or Denmark (prior to the Orphan Works Directive). However details of all licences granted are available on-line in Canada.
II. Rights Clearance Simulation
The “Rights Clearance Exercise” reported in Study II is a combination of various methods. In a first step a simulation approach is employed to collect a unique dataset on actual or potential licence fees for orphan works. Representatives of rights clearance authorities from countries covered in the comparative legal review (Canada, Denmark, France, Hungary, India, Japan, supplemented by some US data) were asked to provide a licence fee for each of six scenarios that are likely to occur in reality (from creating a small online resource to mass digitisation projects).
The identification of the various scenarios was the outcome of a rigorous methodological procedure. The six identified scenarios were:
Historical geographic maps for a video game for mobile phones (up to 50 maps
A vintage postcard collection for web publication and eventual sale of prints (up to50 cards)
National folk tune recordings for multimedia/teaching (DVD) (up to 50)
Re-issuing a 1960/70s TV series as part of a digital on-demand service (one series)
Mass digitisation of photographs (archives) by a public non-profit institution, with possible sale of prints (above 100,000 items)
Mass digitisation of books by a private for-profit institution, with possible sale of books (above 100,000 items)
Two rates for each scenario were sought, for commercial and non-commercial use. In a second step the dataset is subjected to various analytical techniques, including a regression approach and a comparison of collective licensing systems against others through the computation of effect sizes.
Findings Study II:
(1) There does not appear to be a standard price for licensing orphan works. In fact tariffs vary widely. For example, to clear 50 items from a folk tune archive for commercial use will cost the equivalent of £188 per year in Canada, and (under reasonable assumptions) £9,312 per year in France. In fact, the only consistent finding appears to be that in almost all cases commercial licence fees tend to exceed non-commercial ones.
(2) Licences were not available for all scenarios. Re-issuing orphaned broadcasts seems particularly problematic, with no licence offered in any of the countries investigated.
(3) There is no systematic recognition of what may constitute an appropriate duration for licences. Licences were very variable from country to country, ranging from a monthly to a five-year licence, without the provision of a permanent licence.
(4) We find high tariffs that discourage mass digitisation projects. Per item fees initially appearing very low and thus sustainable turn out to render mass-digitisation unviable for public and non-profit institutions when scaled up under reasonable assumptions. Mass digitisation projects involving 100,000 items may incur annual licensing fees exceeding £1 million per year.
(5) The average level of fees imposed on a potential user of an orphan work is similar in collective and individual licensing regimes. This is an interesting finding because it mitigates arguments that one of the regimes will lead to higher fees. The operating costs involved in running an orphan works scheme appear therefore an important factor when choosing between individual and collective approaches.
(6) A limited liability system seems to have advantages for archives and other non-profit institutions exposed to orphan works, enabling those organisations to share their stock of orphaned artefacts with the public. In contrast, the up-front rights clearing seems to provide more appropriate incentives for commercial uses of orphaned artefacts, guaranteeing that a reappearing rightholder will be compensated for the exploitation of any work.
Together, the findings from both studies indicate the need for a more structured and consistent approach in governing orphan works that is reflected in the pricing and duration of licences, and in the costs of running any licensing system
The Google Book search settlement: A law and economics analysis
No full textBeginning in December 2004 Google has pursued a new project to create a book search engine (Google Book Search). The project has released a storm of controversy around the globe. While the supporters of Google Book Search conceive the project as a first reasonable step towards unlimited access to knowledge in the information age, its opponents fear profound negative effects due to an erosion of copyright law. Our law and economics analysis of the Book Search Project suggests that – from a copyright perspective – the proposed settlement may be beneficial to right holders, consumers, and Google. For instance, it may provide a solution to the still unsolved dilemma of orphan works. From a competition policy perspective, we stress the important aspect that Google’s pricing algorithm for orphan and unclaimed works effectively replicates a competitive Nash-Bertrand market outcome under post-settlement, third-party oversight.Book Rights Registry; Competition Policy; Copyright; Fair Use; Google Book Search; Library Program; Orphan Works
Usage of Orphan Works in Theatre
No full textTato práce mapuje problematiku osiřelých děl v České republice a jak jsou tato díla užívána především v oblasti divadla. Čtenář bude postupně seznámen s definicí tohoto pojmu, proč jsou osiřelá díla vůbec důležitá, jaká legislativa se k nim pojí a jak se licence k osiřelému dílu získává. V závěru je práce doplněna o statistiky vytvářené autorkou za cílem zmapovat stav užívání osiřelých děl v divadle. Cílem práce je popsat srozumitelně tuto problematiku a vyvodit z ní doporučení, díky kterým by mohla být osiřelá díla využívána v kultuře více, a zároveň aby divadla mohla projít procesem získávání licence co nejsnáze a nejrychleji.This thesis maps the issue of orphan works in Czech Republic and how these works are used, specifically in field of theatre. Reader will be gradually introduced to the definition of this works, why are orphan works important, what legislation links to it and how licences for these works are obtained. The end of the thesis contains statistics made by the author to map the status of orphan work usage in theatre. The aim is to clearly describe the issue and to draw some recommendations that could lead to higher usage of orphan works in cultural field while at the same time it could help theatres to go through the licensing process as eas and as quickly as possible
Schistosoma mansoni tetraspanning orphan receptor - SmTOR
No full textSchistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease affecting more than 207 million people worldwide with an estimated number of 700 million people at risk in 74 endemic countries. There are five species of schistosoma that are known to infect humans by contact with its larval stage, the cercariae: Schistosoma mekongi, S. intercalatum, S. mansoni, S. japonicum and S. haematobium, the latter three being the main schistosome species that affect humans. Although the infection can be treated by using chemotherapeutics, it is hardly possible to influence strongly the risk of re-infection and a vaccine against schistosomiasis is a desirable goal.
Schistosome parasites need to adapt to survive at various points of their complex life cycle. In the vertebrate definitive host, this involves the avoidance of the host immune system in general and the battle against the host complement system participating in the first line of immune defenses against the invading parasite in particular. There are several complement regulators found on schistosomes. We are interested in complement regulation at the level of the formation of the C3 convertase by a complement C2 binding receptor. This C2 binding receptor was first characterised in one of the human schistosoma species S. haematobium and denominated ShTOR for trispanning orphan receptor. After the S. mansoni genome had been sequenced, we had a closer look at the ShTOR receptor homologue in this species.
The aims of the project were to characterise the S. haematobium TOR receptor homologue SmTOR in S. mansoni (PART I), to test if the first extracellular domain 1 of SmTOR binds C2 and to define its antigenicity (PART II) and to define the immunogenicity of SmTORed1 in mice and test it as a vaccine candidate against schistosomiasis in a murine vaccination and challenge model (PART III). In line with the structure of the project outline presented above, the work presented in this thesis can be summarised as follows:
At first, we found that SmTOR is a tetraspanning receptor expressed in the tegumental membranes of schistsosomes. As compared to the truncated receptor versions described before, it possesses a longer extracellular domain 1 still comprising the C2 binding motif. Its expression was highest in the infectious stage of the parasite, in the S. mansoni cercariae. SmTOR might play an important role in skin penetration of S. mansoni larvae and it is an interesting target for vaccination since it is an early antigen on schistosoma cercariae and has a complement inhibitory activity.
We then overexpressed SmTOR extracellular domain 1 (rSmTORed1) in E. coli, which was purified by immobilised metal affinity chromatography. We were able to show that full length recombinant SmTORed1 binds C2. We moreover detected specific antibodies against rSmTORed1 in sera of patients infected with S. mansoni and also in some normal human sera. Specificity of antibody to rSmTORed1 was ensured by pre-incubation of sera with the
Halo-tagged version of SmTORed1 immobilised on a solid support. SmTORed1 N-terminally fused to HaloTag and the corresponding control constructs were produced in E. coli as well.
Thirdly, we tested the immunogenicity of rSmTORed1 in two different mouse strains, BALB/c and C57BL/6 using muramyl dipeptide (MDP) and Complete/Incomplete FreundÕs adjuvant (CFA/IFA) as adjuvants. BALB/c mice immunised with rSmTORed1 in CFA/IFA generated the highest titer of specific antibodies to rSmTORed1 and were subsequently tested in an immunisation challenge experimental setup. For this, immunised mice were infected with S. mansoni cercariae and status of infection assessed by adult worm count. Immunised mice showed a 60 % reduction of worm burden when compared to the two control groups.
Taken together, we managed to newly characterise the S. mansoni TOR receptor and to show that it is an interesting anti-schistosome vaccine target to be followed up in additional experiments
Copyright & Risk: Scoping the Wellcome Digital Library Project
No full textCopyright & Risk: Scoping the Wellcome Digital Library is a comprehensive case study which aims to assess the merits of the risk-managed approach to copyright clearance adopted by the Wellcome Library (WL) in the course of their pilot digitisation project Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics.
Whilst the WL clearly identifies as a library, as a collecting institution it extends from books and periodicals to include archives and manuscripts, art, the moving image and sound associated with the biomedical sciences and the medical humanities.[1] In this case study we consider the digitisation of both library (books) and archive material as part of the Codebreakers project, although our principal interest lies with the archive digitisation strand.
This report assesses the merits of the WL’s approach to copyright compliance by:
Introducing the WL and the Codebreakers mass digitisation project
Outlining the copyright challenges presented by the mass-digitisation effort
Discussing the risk management methods used by the WL in determining which rights should be cleared
Examining the results of the risk-managed copyright clearance process
As a result of this analysis, the research aims to:
Compare the Wellcome experience on Codebreakers to rights clearance exercises attempted by other cultural heritage institutions
Provide policy makers with useful data and insights to inform the debate on copyright exceptions for cultural heritage institutions
Discuss the relevance of this approach for other UK archive institutions
Prior to the preparation of this case study, CREATe published a working paper in March 2013[2], reviewing current and proposed changes to UK copyright law, and specifically exceptions provided for libraries and archives. This was further extended by a review of available literature on the digitisation of archival and library collections for publication online, contextualized with specific examples.
Existing literature reveals that rights clearance procedures impose prohibitive burdens on cultural institutions, through the cost of staff time and training in both diligent search and the process of contacting rightsholders.[3] It also indicates that in most cases, the results of rights clearance processes are unsatisfactory: either copyright holders cannot be identified and traced; or those who are contacted, do not respond to permission requests. Archives, in contrast to libraries, have the added complication of dealing with larger and more varied collections of material, the majority of which has been created for non-commercial purposes; this material is often unpublished at the point of deposit with the archive, and typically includes higher proportions of orphan works (when compared with traditional library collections).[4]
Documented examples of archival rights clearance projects are scarce, and where studies do exist, they have generally been conducted at a large-scale level, and do not contain sufficient detail to enable in-depth analysis of the rights clearance process.[5] Anna Vuopala’s excellent Orphan Works study[6] includes examples of rights clearance projects at 19 institutions, and focuses almost exclusively on the time and cost required to clear rights, which is extremely useful, but leaves out other valuable details about the right clearance process: for example, the number of rightsholders’ contact details found; the refusal rates and reasons given for refusal at each institution; and the number of rightsholders who do not respond to permission requests.
In general, there is a lack of detailed evidence concerning rights clearance in archival digitisation, and especially in relation to projects that employ risk-management strategies in a sector which is known to be highly risk averse. The WL was chosen as an appropriate subject for this case study given the scale of their digitisation aims, and their use of a risk managed approach to copyright compliance.
Codebreakers, as a digitisation project, was never designed to facilitate a study of the process of rights clearance – by the time data collection for the Copyright and Risk Project began, Codebreakers was entering its final stages, with the official launch of the project website taking place in February 2013. As a result, semi-structured interviews were chosen as the most effective method of obtaining data about the project. Interviews were conducted with key project staff at the WL as well as with staff from five partner archives involved in delivering the Codebreakers project.
The semi-structured format of the interviews was chosen for its flexibility; a list of questions was chosen, but given the length of the interviews, it was possible to divert from these questions and follow up on unexpected lines of enquiry raised by the interview subjects. Also, by working from a set list of questions, it was still possible to collate the answers to specific questions, thereby producing some quantifiable data. The questions were generated through a discussion of the aims of the project, and through consultation of other similar projects: specifically Jean Dryden’s doctoral research on the practices of Canadian repositories when making their archival material available online.[7]
The interviews covered five specific areas: the respondents’ role within their place of work; their role working on the Codebreakers project; the rights clearance challenges posed by the project; the development of policies and practices over the timeframe of the project; and finally, the respondents’ own views and experience of copyright, divorced from an institutional perspective.
Using this method of enquiry, respondents were asked about policies and practices mandated by the institutions they work for, but also for their own opinions as professionals, built up though work experience, education and training. By encouraging the respondents to reflect on their own experience, it was also possible to use the ‘snowball’ technique to tease out pointers to documentation and other resources used by the respondents, not only in relation to this project, but to their experience working on others as well.
Once completed, the interviews were transcribed to provide usable data. The transcriptions were used for a variety of purposes. Responses to specific questions were logged to give quantifiable results. Where respondents gave specific examples of practices, or policy changes, these are used as evidence in the text of this report. As a result of interviewing respondents at the Wellcome, project documentation was also made available for inclusion in this case study. This material takes two forms: policy documents which were circulated and updated as the project took place; and an internal report produced towards the end of the project, which includes a variety of statistics and more general lessons learned. The documentation has been discussed in the text of the report and examples of specific documents are available in the Appendix.
This combination of anecdotal evidence, combined with results and project documentation, has allowed us to trace the processes by which the WL has used risk management to achieve their digitisation objectives.
[1] The Wellcome Library Collection Development Policy is available athttp://wellcomelibrary.org/content/documents/policy-documents/collection-development-policy.pdf [Accessed: 5 Dec 2013]
[2] Deazley, R., and Stobo, V. (2013) Archives and Copyright: Risk and Reform. Working Paper. CREATe / University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
[3] Ibid
[4] For any work, created by an author who died before 1 January 1969, which was unpublished as of 1 August 1989 (when the CDPA 1988 came into force), the duration of copyright will last until 31 December 2039. CDPA, Schedule 1, s.12(4).
[5] Vuopala, A., “Assessment of the Orphan works issue and Costs for Rights Clearance” (May 2010), available at: and Korn, N., (2009) “In from the Cold” JISC & The Collections Trust, available at: [Accessed: 1 Sep 2013]
[6] Vuopala, A., (2010) – See page 39, and the example of the National Archives ‘Moving Here’ project. 45 rightsholders refused permission, but information regarding the reasons for refusal is not available. As to the rightsholders who could not be identified in relation to 385 documents – it is not made clear whether contact details could not be found for these individuals, or if they were but did not respond to permission requests.
[7] Dryden, J., “Copyright issues in the selection of archival material for internet access” (2008) Archival Science 123-4
author-bios-SRD-19-0063.R1 – Supplemental material for The Network Structure of Police Misconduct
No full textSupplemental material, author-bios-SRD-19-0063.R1 for The Network Structure of Police Misconduct by George Wood, Daria Roithmayr and Andrew V. Papachristos in Socius</p
Hotspots and Coldspots: Household and village-level variation in orphanhood prevalence in rural Malawi
No full textWe explore the spatial distribution of orphans in two areas of Malawi. We first review pertinent themes in qualitative data collected in our research sites. Then, using spatial analysis, we show how positive and negative clusters of orphans—which we term orphanhood "hotspots" and "coldspots"—can be found at the village and sub-village levels. In the third and longest section of the paper, and using multilevel analyses with both simple and complex variance structures, we evaluate the relationship between the presence of orphans and a range of individual, household and village-level characteristics, including households' spatial relationship to each other and to other local sites of significance. This series of analyses shows that the most important covariates of orphan presence are the density of settlement, household size, and religious characteristics, with the latter measured simultaneously at both household and village-level. Other characteristics like education, reported mortality levels and HIV infection, are wholly unrelated to orphan prevalence at all analytic levels. Wealth and various spatial characteristics are only marginally associated with orphan prevalence. We conclude by reviewing some difficulties in explaining causal mechanisms underlying these observed relationships, and discussing conceptual, theoretical and programmatic implications.Africa, AIDS/HIV, Malawi, multilevel model, orphan prevalence, orphans, spatial analysis
Expenditure trends of orphan drugs in Serbia: 8-Year analysis of orphan drug market in Serbia
No full textBackground/Objective: Orphan drugs are medicinal products which treat life-threatening or chronically debilitating diseases which affect small patient populations. So far there is a substantial knowledge gap on actual expenditure on orphan drugs in Serbia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to provide insight into the expenditure trends of orphan drugs in Serbia. Material and methods: Annual reports on turnover and the consumption of pharmaceuticals in Serbia published by Medicines and Medical Devices Agency of Serbia (ALIMS) for the period 2006-2013 were used to extract data on expenditure on orphan drugs. Drugs were eligible for inclusion in the analysis if they had active European orphan designation and European marketing authorization during the period covered by the study (2006-2013). Data were analysed across time series. Simple descriptive analysis and observation of chronological trends were applied. Results: Data for annual expenditure on 12 different orphan drugs were available in the analysed reports. Orphan drug expenditure and share of orphan drug expenditure in total drug expenditure increased constantly from 2006 to 2010. Both began to slightly decrease over the next two years (2011-2012), and then suddenly declined nearly threefold in 2013. Share of orphan drug expenditure didn't exceed 1% of total drug expenditure over a period of eight years. The highest share of expenditure on orphan drugs was attributed to imatinib (87.36%-97.13%), so abrupt decline in 2013 could be explained by its withdrawal from European Community Register of Orphan Medicinal Products in 2012. Conclusions: Expenditure on orphan drugs in Serbia from 2006 to 2013 was considerably low compared to total expenditure on drugs. In the last available year we noted substantial decline of orphan drug expenditure, mainly because of imatinib losing its orphan designation. A broader time horizon would be needed to investigate long term trends
European regulation on orphan medicinal products: 10 years of experience and future perspectives.
No full textIn 2000, regulation on orphan medicinal products was adopted in the European Union with the aim of benefiting patients who suffer from serious, rare conditions for which there is currently no satisfactory treatment. Since then, more than 850 orphan drug designations have been granted by the European Commission based on a positive opinion from the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP), and more than 60 orphan drugs have received marketing authorization in Europe. Here, stimulated by the tenth anniversary of the COMP, we reflect on the outcomes and experience gained in the past decade, and contemplate issues for the future, such as catalysing drug development for the large number of rare diseases that still lack effective treatments
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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