A Lexicon for Uniform Indexing and Retrieval of Radiology Information Resources

RadLex Documentation

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RadLex® Ontology License

Introduction  
RadLex® is a reference ontology for the domain of radiology and is an active, curated ontology. RadLex® is an ongoing project of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) under the supervision of the RadLex® Steering Committee. Development of RadLex® is funded by the RSNA with additional support from: the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and National Institute of Health cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG).

The RSNA RadLex® Website http://www.rsna.org/radlex/ is the authoritative source of the Release Version of RadLex®. The Release Version is always current as of the date it is downloaded from the RSNA RadLex® Website. There is no charge for users to download the Release Version of RadLex®.

The RadLex® Master Ontology, as distinct from the Release Version, is under constant revision. Because it includes works-in-progress, project documents and contributions which have not yet been accepted, RSNA does not make the RadLex® Master Ontology available for distribution.

This License permits public access to the Release Version of RadLex® and makes it possible for Licensees to use it for clinical, research, educational and commercial activities without charge.

Potential users of RadLex® shall agree to the RadLex® License Agreement prior to downloading the Release Version of RadLex®. The RadLex® License Agreement and user registration are available at the RadLex® Website at: http://www.rsna.org/radlex/.

[This is the start of the official Release Version RadLex Ontology License]

RadLex® Ontology License

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION

1. Definitions  
"Assignee" shall mean any person or entity that assumes full obligations, rights, and responsibilities of this agreement. This includes any sub-license agreements.

"Contribution" shall mean any work of authorship that is related to the RadLex® (including the original version of the Work and any modifications, deletions or additions to that Work) that is intentionally submitted to the RadLex® Steering Committee for inclusion in the RadLex® Master Ontology or the Work by the copyright owner or by an individual or Legal Entity authorized to submit on behalf of the copyright owner. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted" means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent to the Licensor or its representatives, including but not limited to communication in RadLex Committee meetings, communication on electronic mailing lists, and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, the Licensor for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution."

"Contributor" shall mean any individual or Legal Entity on behalf of whom a Contribution has been received by RSNA and subsequently incorporated within the Work, including but not limited to all participants in RadLex Committees.

"File Format Conversions" shall mean format conversions as identified in Appendix A. The RadLex® is file format independent and File Format Conversions are not considered original works of authorship.

"RadLex®" shall mean all of the Work including the "RadLex® Master Ontology," the "Release Version of the RadLex® Ontology, and associated documentation and materials developed and curated by the RadLex® Steering Committee.

"RadLex®" Master Ontology" shall mean the controlled master of the RadLex® which is under development by the RadLex® Steering Committee and is distinct from the Release Version of the RadLex®. The master copy is not available for distribution under any circumstance and therefore is not covered by the license.

"RadLex® Steering Committee" shall mean individuals modifying RadLex® under the direction of the RSNA-appointed Committee Chair, the primary curator of RadLex®.

"Legal Entity" shall mean the union of the acting entity and all other entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common control with that entity. For the purposes of this definition, "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.

"License" shall mean the terms and conditions for use, reproduction, and distribution as defined by Sections 1 through 11 of this agreement.

"Licensee" shall mean an individual or Legal Entity exercising permissions granted by this License.

"Licensor" shall mean the copyright owner or entity authorized by the copyright owner that is granting the License.

"Modifications" shall mean any work that is based on (or derived from) the Work and for which the editorial revisions, content additions, annotations, elaborations, translations to other languages or other Modifications represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship. For the purpose of this License, File Format Conversions are not considered an original work of authorship. Modifications shall not include works that remain separable from, or merely link to the interfaces of the Work and Modifications thereof.

"Ontology" shall mean a formal and explicit specification of objects, their properties and relationships in a specified area of reality into a specialized schema that supports the organization of data in databases.

"Release File Format" shall mean the file format for the Release Version of the RadLex® as identified in Appendix A. 
 
"Release Version of the RadLex®" shall mean the released version of the RadLex® as identified in Appendix A and as made available to the Licensee under this License and shall be the preferred form for creating and distributing Modifications.

"RSNA" shall mean the Radiological Society of North America, Inc., a Not-for-profit organization having its administrative offices at 820 Jorie Blvd., Oak Brook, IL 60523.

"Work" shall mean the Release Version of RadLex®, and any work of authorship related to the Release Version of RadLex® and made available under the License, as indicated by a copyright notice that is included in or attached to the Work as identified in Appendix C. 
  
2. Grant of Copyright License  
Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, RSNA and each Contributor hereby grants Licensee a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, copyright license to reproduce, publicly display, publicly perform, prepare Modifications, and distribute the Work with or without Modifications, subject to the Limited Use of Identifiers in Section Four (4) of this License.
  
RSNA reserves the right to use information and Contributions provided by the Licensee in making changes to RadLex®. Licensee agrees not to allege or enjoin infringement by RSNA for any Modifications, extensions or other improvements prepared by RSNA, or by any third party obtaining Modifications, extensions, or other improvements under license from RSNA.  
 
3. Grant of Patent License 
Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Contributor hereby grants to Licensee a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work, where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s) with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If Licensee institutes patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses granted to Licensee under this License for that Work shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.  
 
4. Limited Use of Identifiers  
Licensee may reproduce and distribute copies of the Work or Modifications thereof in any medium, with or without Modifications, provided that Licensee meets the following conditions:

a. File Format Conversions distributed by Licensee shall include specific conditions as identified in Appendix A.  
 
 b. Licensee shall not distribute or cause to re-distribute Modifications using the name or any part of the following names or titles: "RadLex®," "RadLex® Research," "RadLex® Steering Committee," "RadLex® Project," or any mark or identifier pertaining to the RadLex® or the RSNA; and  
 
 c. Licensee shall identify the Work as the, "Release Version of the RadLex® Ontology", and if the Licensee wishes to distribute the Work, Licensee agrees not to modify or alter the Work.; and  
 
 d. Licensee shall retain in the Work and any Modifications, all copyright, patent, trademark and identifiers, and attribution notices from the Work, excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of the Modifications; and  
 
 e. Licensee shall cause any modified files to carry prominent notices stating that Licensee changed the files with a brief description of said changes; and  
 
 f. If the Work includes a "NOTICE" text file as part of its distribution, then any Modifications that Licensee distributes must include a readable copy of the attribution notices contained within such NOTICE file, excluding those notice that do not pertain to any part of the Modifications, in at least one of the following places: within a NOTICE text file distributed as part of the Modifications; or, within a display generated by the Modifications, if and wherever such third-party notices normally appear. The contents of the NOTICE file are for informational purposes only and do not modify the License. Licensee may add Licensee's own attribution notices within Modifications that Licensee distributes, alongside or as an addendum to the NOTICE text from the Work, provided that such additional attribution notices cannot be construed as modifying the License; and  
 
 g. Licensee agrees to provide all recipients of the Work or Modifications a copy of this License.

Licensee may add its own copyright statement to Modifications and may provide additional or different license terms and conditions for use, reproduction, or distribution of Licensee's Modifications, or for any such Modifications as a whole, provided Licensee's use, reproduction, and distribution of the Work otherwise complies with the conditions stated in this License.  
 
5. Attribution  
Any Work or Modifications which use or are based on the Release Version of the RadLex® Ontology will acknowledge the RadLex® Ontology using the following attribution statement: 
  
"The [specify part or component] of this publication, ontology, or knowledgebase is based on [or is a modification of] the RadLex® Ontology developed at the Radiological Society of North America, Inc. (RSNA) by the RadLex® Steering Committee and its subspecialty committees and is provided under license from RSNA."  
 
6. Submission of Contributions  
RadLex® is a unique work. The RadLex® Master Ontology is maintained by RSNA. The sole responsibility and authorship of the RadLex® Ontology is the exclusive right of RSNA and the RadLex® Steering Committee and its subspecialty committees.

All Contributors, including members of the RadLex® Steering Committee and its subspecialty committees, who recommend Modifications to the RadLex® Ontology do so with the understanding that RSNA and the RadLex® Steering Committee reserve the right to use this information in making changes to the RadLex® Ontology. Each Contributor agrees not to allege or enjoin infringement by RSNA for any Modifications, extensions or other improvements prepared by RSNA, or by any third party obtaining such Modifications, extensions, or other improvements under license from RSNA.

Unless Licensee explicitly states otherwise, any Contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the Release Version of the RadLex® by Contributor or Licensee to the RadLex® Steering Committee shall be under the terms and conditions of this License, without any additional terms or conditions. Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify the terms of any separate license agreement Licensee may have executed with Licensor regarding such Contributions.
  
Contributors acknowledge the following terms and conditions for their Contributions:

a) All Contributions of recommended changes and submissions shall be under the terms and conditions of the Release Version of RadLex® Ontology License. Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify the terms of any separate license agreement Contributors may have executed with Licensor regarding such Contributions.
   
 b) The sole responsibility and authorship of the RadLex® Ontology is the exclusive right of the RSNA and the RadLex Steering Committee. 
  
 c) All Contributions to the RadLex® Ontology shall be accepted or rejected at the sole discretion of the RadLex Steering Committee.
   
 d) Contributors agree that all Contributions may be used by RSNA and the RadLex Steering Committee for use in the RadLex® Ontology at no charge or royalty, attribution or formal acknowledgment. RSNA will include on the RadLex Website, a formal acknowledgment for the contributions of other organizations to the development of RadLex similar to the sample provided in Appendix B.
  
 e) Contributor grants permission for RSNA to use Contributors name in connection with the RadLex® only to identify Contributors. 
  
 f) Contributor releases RSNA, including its officials, employees, representatives and agents, successors and assigns, from any claims that may arise regarding the use of the Contribution, including claims of rights of publicity or copyrights.  
 
 g) Contributors warrant they have authority to submit Contribution(s) and that to the best of their knowledge the Contribution does not infringe on any third party rights or violate any privacy laws. If the Contribution(s) includes non-original materials, or the materials are from other authors, or information for which a privacy release is required, Contributors have obtained the necessary written releases and the releases are attached.

Contributors may submit requests, comments, and feedback to radlex@rsna.org. 
These submissions may be referenced or reviewed by the RadLex Steering Committee at its sole discretion.  
 
7. Identifiers and Trademarks 
This License does not grant permission to use the trade names, identifiers, trademarks, service marks, or product names of the RadLex® or RSNA, except as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the origin of the Work and reproducing the content of the NOTICE file. All goodwill associated with the marks and identifiers shall inure to RSNA.

Licensee shall not use the names RadLex® or RSNA or logos, marks, or any abbreviations thereof without prior written approval from RSNA except as otherwise expressly provided in this License.  
 
8. Disclaimer of Warranty and Indemnification  
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, RSNA provides the Release Version of the RadLex® and Licensor provides the Work (and each Contributor provides its Contributions) on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Licensee is solely responsible for determining the appropriateness of using or redistributing the Works and Modifications and assumes any risks associated with Licensee's exercise of permissions under this License. Should the Release Version of the RadLex®, Works, or Modifications not work properly or be inappropriate for Licensee's purposes, the Licensee's sole remedy is to discontinue its use immediately.

To the extent allowed by law, Licensee shall indemnify and hold harmless RSNA, and its officers, RadLex developers, employees, students, and agents, against any and all claims, suits, losses, damages, costs, fees, and expenses resulting from Licensee's possession, use, Modification or distribution of RadLex®, Works, or Release Version of RadLex®, including but not limited to any damages, losses, or liabilities whatsoever with respect to death or injury to any person and damage to any property. This indemnification clause shall survive the termination of this License.  
 
9. Limitation of Liability 
In no event and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall any Contributor be liable to Licensee for damages, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a result of this License or out of the use or inability to use the Work (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor has been advised of the possibility of such damages.  
 
RSNA SHALL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR A) PERSONAL INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE OR LOST PROFITS, LOST BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, INVENTORY LOSS, WORK STOPPAGE, LOST DATA OR ANY OTHER RELIANCE OR EXPECTANCY, DIRECT OR INDIRECT, SPECIAL INCIDENTIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OF ANY KIND.  
 
10. Accepting Warranty or Additional Liability 
While redistributing the Work or Modifications thereof, Licensee may choose to offer, and charge a fee for, acceptance of support, warranty, indemnity, or other liability obligations and/or rights consistent with this License. However, in accepting such obligations, Licensee may act only on Licensee's own behalf and on Licensee's sole responsibility, not on behalf of any other Contributor, and only if Licensee agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold each Contributor harmless for any liability incurred by, or claims asserted against, such Contributor by reason of Licensee's accepting any such warranty or additional liability.  
 
11. General  
This Agreement shall be construed in accordance with, and its performance shall be governed by, the laws of the State of Illinois, United States. Any suit, action, or proceeding arising out of or relating to this Agreement shall be decided in DuPage County, Illinois, U.S.A. Licensee accepts the venue and jurisdiction of the Federal District Court of Northern Illinois, Oak Brook, IL, or the DuPage County Superior Courts. The application of the United Nations Convention for contracts for the International Sales of Goods is hereby expressly excluded.

This Agreement embodies the entire understanding of the parties and supersedes all previous communications, representations, or understandings, either oral or written, between the parties relating to the subject matter hereof. If any of the provisions of this Agreement are determined to be illegal or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, all remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

The Licensee is authorized to create derivative material of the Release Version of RadLex® without providing notice to the RSNA. The Licensee shall only distribute the Release Version of RadLex® or Modifications as noted in section 4. The Licensee may assign this agreement provided that: (1) the Licensee warrants that the Assignee is provided all terms of the License and (2) the Assignee agrees to all the terms of the License. 
 
As a condition of use, the Licensee shall agree to this license via the RadLex Website at: www.rsna.org/radlex/.

Notices shall be delivered by hand, air courier express or certified mail with return receipt requested or by facsimile to the designated RSNA and Licensee contacts identified below ("Contacts") and shall be deemed delivered three (3) days after mailing. 
 
To RSNA:  
Director of Informatics  
820 Jorie Boulevard 
Oak Brook, IL 60523 
Facsimile: 630-571-7837 
 
To Licensee:  
Unless Licensee designates another contact below, the Licensee contact information shall be the information submitted at the RadLex Website at:  
www.rsna.org/radlex 
Name: _____________________________  
Address: _____________________________  
_____________________________  
Facsimile: _____________________________  
 
At no time will the Licensee be defined or treated as an: independent contractor, partnership, agency, joint venture or contract of employment between the Licensee and the RSNA.

Licensee may terminate this Agreement at any time upon written notice to RSNA. RSNA may terminate this Agreement upon notice if Licensee is in breach of this Agreement and fails within thirty (30) days of a written demand for performance to cure such breach. Termination of this Agreement shall terminate all rights and License granted to Licensee relating to the Tools.  
 
Appendix A  
Release Version of the RadLex® Ontology  
 
Release File Format  
The Release Version of RadLex® is a snapshot of the RadLex® Ontology and is current as of the date it is downloaded from the RadLex® Website. The Release Version of RadLex® is currently available in the RadLex Term Browser at http://radlex.org. 
 
For a format that includes a graphical representation of the relationships, see RadLex in the National Center for Biomedical Ontology's BioPortal: http://www.bioontology.org/ncbo/faces/pages/ontology_details.xhtml?ontology_display_name=RadLex 
 
File Format Conversion  
The RadLex® Ontology is file format independent. File format conversions, such as conversions of the RadLex® Ontology as a whole to an alternative representation (such as OWL or OBO) from its Release File Format, are not considered original works of authorship. Such conversions will likely include modifications, insertions, and/or deletions of RadLex content as necessitated by the representational constructs provided by the target language. File format conversions may also be characterized by modifications intended to enhance the utility of the ontology, in the target language, that are not significant anatomical content modifications (i.e. introducing closure axioms when converting to an open-world model such as OWL).

Any distribution by the Licensee of File Format Conversion shall include "RadLex®" and the goodwill associated with the RadLex® mark. The licensor shall inspect all goods using the mark for quality. As a condition of the quality control inspection, Licensee shall provide all relevant material related to File Format Conversions to RadLex Steering Committee prior to distribution.
  
In naming the File Format Conversions, the title shall use RadLex® as the first element of the title. Examples of titles would be: " RadLex®-OBO" or " RadLex®-OWL."

Acceptance of Conditions:

Before downloading the Release Version of RadLex®, Licensees shall register and agree to the terms and conditions of this license by clicking the appropriate checkbox at the RadLex Website, which is available at: www.rsna.org/radlex. 
 
Appendix B 
Sample RadLex® Contributor Acknowledgment 
 
RadLex® is an active, curated reference ontology for the domain of radiology. It has been developed under the sponsorship of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) with additional support from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and the National Institute of Health's cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) project. RadLex® is overseen by the RadLex Steering Committee chaired by Dr. Curtis Langlotz (2001-2007) and Dr. Daniel Rubin (2007-present). Development work has been done by volunteer Subspecialty Lexicon Development Committees composed of representatives from numerous organizations across the radiologic and general physician community. Some of these organizations have also contributed existing terminology references. Contributors include:

• American Society of Functional Neuroradiology 
• American Society of Head and Neck Radiology 
• American Society of Interventional & Therapeutic Neuroradiology 
• American Society of Neuroradiology 
• American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology 
• American Society of Spine Radiology 
• Cardiovascular Radiology Council of the American Heart Association 
• College of American Pathologists and SNOMED CT® 
• European Society of Neuroradiology 
• International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 
• North American Society for Cardiac Imaging 
• North American Spine Society 
• Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance 
• Society of Body Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance 
• Society of Gastrointestinal Radiology 
• Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound 
• Society of Skeletal Radiology  
• Society of Uroradiology

Appendix C  
Copyright Notice Included in Release Version RadLex® Ontology 
 
The text should be enclosed in the appropriate comment syntax for the file format. We also recommend that a file or class name and description of purpose be included on the same "printed page" as the copyright notice for easier identification within third-party archives.

RadLex © Copyright [yyyy] [your organization] 
Licensed under the RadLex Ontology License (the "License"). 
You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. 
You may obtain a copy of the License at: http://www.rsna.org/radlex 
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software and the database files for the Release Version RadLex is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.  
 
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the RadLex® Ontology License at: http://www.rsna.org/radlex 
 
[This is the end of the official Release Version RadLex ® Ontology License]

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This material includes SNOMED Clinical Terms® (SNOMED CT®), which is used by permission of the College of American Pathologists. ©2002-2004 College of American Pathologists. All rights reserved. SNOMED CT has been created by combining SNOMED RT® and a computer based nomenclature and classification known as Clinical Terms Version 3, formerly known as the Read Codes Version 3, which was created on behalf of the U.K. Department of Health and is a Crown Copyright. SNOMED and SNOMED CT are registered trademarks of the College of American Pathologists.