Effective: 1 May 2022
IMPORTANT NOTE:
These Legal Policies apply to the assessment products and services listed on this website (pearsonclinical.in) for Pearson’s Clinical Assessment (“Pearson”) products.
These Legal Policies are subject to change from time to time by updated postings, and changes will be effective upon posting of an update.
General policy for reproduction and dissemination of Pearson’s test materials
Trade secrets
Copyright/fair use
Disclosure of Test Record Forms
Second opinions
Ethical issues
Electronic storage of assessments
Posting reproductions or an administration of a test on-line
Variant testing conditions
Audio/videotaping of test administrations
Telehealth test delivery administrations
Litigation
General policy for reproduction and dissemination of Pearson’s test materials
General policy for reproduction and dissemination of Pearson’s test materials
Pearson asserts that strong measures are necessary to protect the validity of its valuable testing instruments. Pearson believes that any reproduction of its tests without the prior written permission from Pearson may constitute copyright infringement and is a violation of the Terms and Conditions of Sale and Use of Pearson Products. Furthermore, disclosure of the assessments may threaten the ongoing security, reliability, and/or validity of the test and the test’s results, and therefore, the value and usefulness of the test.
Guidance on how Pearson products and copyrighted materials may be used are set forth in these Legal Policies and in the Appropriate Use of Pearson Clinical Assessment Content found here.
Trade secrets
Outside of the protection granted by United States copyright law, Pearson considers its secured tests to be trade secrets. The test questions and answers, manuals and other materials constitute highly confidential, proprietary testing information that Pearson takes every precaution to protect from disclosure beyond what is absolutely necessary for the purpose of administering a test. Even in the development stage, the assessment materials are treated confidentially by Pearson employees, agents and consultants.
Pearson continues to guard the secrecy of its test materials once they become finished products. They are sold only to qualified individuals who are bound by the ethical standards of their profession to protect the integrity of the materials by maintaining the confidentiality of the test materials. Pearson has Qualification Policies that are strictly enforced and each purchaser of a Qualification Level B or C product is required to fill out a User Acceptance Form that verifies their qualifications. The User Acceptance Form contains a statement signed by the qualified purchaser indicating that the purchaser is so qualified, that the purchaser will abide by the Terms and Conditions of Sale and Use and that all ethical rules will be observed by the purchaser. Therefore, Pearson strongly opposes the release of any test materials to non-qualified individuals.
Copyright/fair use
It is the position of Pearson that any reproduction of its test or other published materials, whether reproduced on paper or electronically (this includes use intake forms, research, video or audio taping administrations, photos, or any image capturing system), constitutes an infringement of the copyright and other proprietary rights in the tests or other published materials. In Pearson’s view, reproduction of its test materials without prior written consent DOES NOT fall within the “fair use” exception of the copyright law. Therefore, please contact Pearson’s Clinical Assessment group at info@pearsonclinical.in for any permission request to make reproductions of any of the Pearson tests or other Pearson materials.
Disclosure of Test Record Forms
Many of our customers have inquired regarding Pearson’s position on whether test record forms must be disclosed to patients in order to comply with the Data Protection Act.
However, Pearson’s test materials are protected by copyright and trade secret law, and the widespread dissemination of test record forms (which may disclose test questions and answers) would violate restrictions on the use of Pearson’s test materials and would cause great harm to Pearson, the test materials, the clinical community, and to the public at large.
Accordingly, we will continue to advise our customers that Pearson’s test materials are trade secrets and their usefulness and value would be compromised if they were generally made available to the public. We have stated this position in correspondence, court cases, news articles and on our website for many years. This position is also consistent with our longstanding practice of ensuring, through our terms and conditions of use, that all purchasers have the appropriate qualifications to administer and interpret the test materials being purchased and that such purchasers agree to maintain the confidentiality of the test materials.
Second opinions
Pearson recognises that, in some cases, a parent or guardian may wish to consult a second professional regarding a minor’s test scores. In these situations, we have no objection to a reproduction of the completed test protocol being provided to another qualified professional for the purpose of review; however, the materials should pass directly from professional to professional and not through the hands of a parent, guardian or their lawyer.
Ethical issues
The original dissemination of Pearson’s test materials are carefully restricted to individuals with a professional background in psychology, and only individuals with appropriate training in psychological assessment should interpret the tests. Under the Code of Good Practice for Psychological Testing, published by The British Psychological Society , psychologists have an ethical duty to protect the integrity of secure tests by maintaining the confidentiality of the test materials and scores by releasing such test materials and scores only to professionals who have the same ethical duty.
The confidentiality of test questions, responses, and scores are paramount to maintaining the integrity, reliability, and validity of the tests. Unlike many other types of tests, our Qualification B and C level tests do not consist of a large collection of test items that are rotated. Rather, these tests have one expensive and highly researched version and should remain intact for 10 to 15 years. Millions of pounds have been spent on the research and “norming” (compiling of statistical data regarding results) of the tests. Any leakage of test items will severely compromise the value and usefulness of the tests.
Electronic storage of assessments
The question of electronic storage is a complicated one. The assessment materials being considered for electronic storage are copyright protected (and in some cases trade secret protected). Copying is not permitted without permission from the publisher. However, we understand that electronic storage is often replacing physical storage for record-keeping purposes. Recognising that reality, please note that our concern is not so much the storage format, as access and disclosure to our assessments that is a problem.
First, please note that our Terms and Conditions of Sale and Use require purchasers of our assessment instruments to protect the security of the instruments they purchase.
Second, we have also developed the following guidelines to assist you with maintaining the security of the assessment instrument and to address the need to store the information electronically. When Pearson grants permission to make electronic file copies of the tests it publishes, we require those who would do electronic storage to comply with the following guidelines. If you are unable to comply with these guidelines, we cannot grant permission to make copies of our assessment materials.
Permission to make electronic file copies of the tests is predicated on the following conditions:
Ensure that the test items not be included whenever possible;
That the tests are kept separate from other file material so that they are not inadvertently disclosed in response to a general request to view medical records. Of course, there are situations that require disclosure of test material, but these are rare and are addressed with legal protective orders; and
That the file containing the tests be password protected and secure from unqualified (per the Pearson qualification policy) users.
When permission to scan has been received and the three safeguards above are in place, electronic storage can work fine for psychological tests. The responsibility for test security remains with the qualified purchaser.
Posting reproductions or an administration of a test on-line
Agreement to Pearson’s Terms and Conditions of Sale and Use of Pearson Products are part of the purchase process for any of its assessments. For a variety of reasons, it is critical that all our customers (including students, as part of their graduate program) adhere to ethical and professional policies for the appropriate protection of secure assessment content. In contrast to the past where videotapes of assessments were relegated to the media lab at the graduate program, technology now makes it very easy for anyone to record themselves administering an assessment and post that recording to a mass media site. While recording an assessment administration remains an important part of the teaching and supervision process, students should be reminded that:
Test materials (text, graphic images, or the oral reading of items) may not be displayed, reproduced, or performed (e.g., filming an administration) in any manner, electronically or otherwise, including posting on any mass media site, such as YouTube or any other similar site, without the prior written permission of Pearson.
This means that posting a video on a mass media site, such as YouTube or any other site, of an administration of a secure, copyrighted assessment should never occur without the prior written consent of Pearson. When a video of this nature becomes public on any forum, it is considered an unauthorised reproduction or performance of the copyrighted material (whether the materials are viewable or not). In addition to the legal concern, all clinicians should be aware that the availability of secure test content to unqualified users is damaging to the test’s reliability and validity.
Variant testing conditions
Audio/video recording of test administration
It is Pearson’s opinion that audio or videotaping or other non-standard conditions may invalidate the use of norm-referenced scores. As you may know, norms for standardized tests are developed under strict conditions. If such conditions are not met, the scaled scores obtained by application of the test norms are not statistically defensible. Although it is the position of Pearson that the validity of any scaled score that results from a non-standard administration should be interpreted with caution, it is the responsibility of the individual psychologist administering the test to ensure that the results of the assessment are an accurate reflection of the examinee’s abilities. In rare high stakes legal evaluations with a valid court order mandating the audio or video recording of an evaluation for review only by other qualified examiners, the examiner and reviewers have the responsibility to determine if this variant testing condition has or had a material impact on the examinees test performance considering issues such as distractions, rapport, and e ort. We request that any such recordings should be made the subject of a protective order to ensure the security of the test items and content. Please refer to the section herein titled Litigation which describes what should be included in a protective order. Additionally, recordings should not be allowed in any setting where the security of the recording cannot be adequately protected. Additionally, an audio or video taping of an administration where any test materials are recorded is a reproduction under copyright law. If done without our written permission, such acts may be an infringement of the assessment’s copyright.
Telehealth test delivery administration
Telehealth is the use of telecommunications technology for the delivery of professional services at a distance. There is initial, but not conclusive evidence supporting test validity when administering the test via a telehealth method for a selective group of assessments. Norms for standardized tests are developed under strict testing conditions. If such conditions are not met, the scaled scores obtained by application of the test norms may not result in statistically accurate scores. Although it is the position of Pearson that the validity of any scaled score obtained as a result from a non-standard administration should be interpreted with caution, it is the responsibility of the individual administering the test to ensure that the results of the assessment are an accurate reflection of the examinee’s abilities. Please refer to the specific product pages for further information related to telehealth test administration. Delivering our assessments via a teleconference or other similar method is a reproduction of our assessments under federal copyright law that requires the written permission from the copyright owner. If done without our written permission, such acts may be an infringement of the assessment’s copyright.
Pearson currently permits the use Pearson products and copyrighted materials under the following conditions:
Qualified professionals are hereby granted a limited and revocable permission to utilize appropriate non-public facing teleconferencing software and tools to assist in the remote administration of Pearson assessment content, consistent with this policy. Before test administration, the qualified professional must obtain documented agreement from the examinee that the session will not be recorded, reproduced or published, and that copies of the materials will not be made. Further, the qualified professional may not utilize recording capabilities to record live test administrations.
This permission is intended to include the use of non-public facing screen-mirroring and screen share methods to remotely share test item content with examinees on a computer screen and capture responses either verbally or through other means.
This permission is not intended to allow for use of photocopying, scanning, or duplication of test protocols, including any screen capture or session recording technology, but is merely intended to support practical live delivery of tele-health services.
This permission is also not intended to allow for any modification to the original test content as it currently appears. Any use of original test content must include copyright notices as contained in the materials and show the copyright notice when displayed. Further requests to modify, translate, digitise, or alter test content should continue to follow Pearson’s standard procedure for Licensing and Permissions requests located here.
More information on the Appropriate Use of Pearson Clinical Assessment Content in the Telehealth setting may be found here.
Litigation
Pearson understands that from time to time you may receive demands from third parties to reproduce, produce or disclose copyright-protected and/or trade secret protected psychological test materials in connection with litigation. If such demands were to be fully complied with, the material disclosed might include test booklets, answer sheets, record forms, manuals, user’s guides, scoring software, computer generated output reports, or other published and unpublished material protected by Pearson under intellectual property law.
Pearson does not wish to impede the progress of legal proceedings; however, we are equally unwilling to jeopardise the security and integrity of our test instruments by consenting to the release of copyrighted and confidential material to those not professionally qualified to obtain them. Should litigation in which a psychologist is involved reach the stage where a court considers ordering the release of proprietary test materials to non-professionals such as counsel, we request that the court issue a protective order prohibiting parties from making copies of the materials; requiring that the materials be returned to the professional at the conclusion of the proceeding; and requiring that the materials not be publicly available as part of the record of the case, whether this is done by sealing part of the record or by not including the materials in the record at all.
In addition, testimony regarding the items, particularly that which makes clear the content of the items, should be sealed and again not be included in the record. Pleadings and other documents filed by the parties should not, unless absolutely necessary, make specific reference to the content of or responses to any item, and any portion of any document that does should be sealed. Finally, we ask that the judge’s opinion, including both findings of fact and conclusions of law, not include descriptions or quotations of the items or responses. We think this is the minimum requirement to protect our copyright and other proprietary rights to the test, as well as the security and integrity of the test.
To the extent that you have not already done so, you may wish to consult with the British Psychological Society, Health and Care Professions Council or your local psychological association on this particular issue.
We very much appreciate your sensitivity to the issues surrounding appropriate use of and access to psychological testing materials. If you have other questions, please contact us: info@pearsonclinical.in
