Medical Researchers Resort To File Sharing To Get Access To Journal Research

from the those-filthy-pirates dept

Tue, Oct 27th 2009 10:14am — Mike Masnick

When you hear about file sharing and unauthorized access to information online, the view pushed by many copyright maximalists is that it's just a bunch of morally corrupt kids who don't want to pay for stuff gleefully "stealing" music and movies from those hard working entertainment industry employees. Of course, the real picture is a lot more complex. For example, apparently there's a growing community of medical researchers using file sharing to exchange information and research reports that they have trouble accessing otherwise. In the past, we've talked about the growing effort to get scientific research published in open access journals, rather than locked up in ridiculously expensive (especially given that they don't have to pay writers or even the peer reviewers) old school research journals.

While open access journals are certainly becoming a lot more popular and useful, there's still plenty of useful research that's very difficult for many to access. At least in the medical field, it looks like some researchers took a page from various private file sharing communities. Christian Zimmerman points us to a report looking at one such community that had over 100,000 registered users sharing scans and uploads of medical research reports from non-open journals via some basic forum-type software (so not really peer-to-peer... yet). The community that was looked at contained nearly 300,000 postings, with people requesting certain reports, and others delivering them.

Apparently, the system was quite effective, with nearly 83% of requests for certain articles resulting in delivery of the requested article. The analysis notes that the 83% is probably low, as there would likely have been a higher success rate if people making the requests followed the stated rules for making a request (some did not). The analysis also noted that people weren't doing this to get back at the journal publishers, but just to help each other out:

From the participants' comments made in the forums, however, there does not appear to be any vindictiveness on the part of the participants against the journals or holders of copyright, but a mood of togetherness, of openness and sharing, and communal assistance. Most remarkable, is that the activity described in this paper did not occur within closed, secure, password- and firewall-protected environments, but within open environments, easily publicly accessible, and easily searchable and referenced by general search engines such as Google.

Though, it should be noted that this particular forum apparently later did go behind a private wall. Still, it's interesting to see the parallel between this and other types of file sharing -- showing, again, that people of all types are recognizing that access to information that's out there should be a given.

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Filed Under: file sharing, medical research, open access journals

22 Comments

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Dark Helmet (profile), 27 Oct 2009 @ 10:21am

You forgot to finish the headline...
"Medical Researchers Resort To File Sharing To Get Access To Journal Research[, Journal Research Copyright Lawyers Fight Back By Tainting Harvard Coffee With Deadly Poison}.

FTFY...
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Jerms, 27 Oct 2009 @ 11:13am

Typo
In the start of the third paragraph:
"Apparently, the system was quiet effective,..."
I think you mean "quite" instead of "quiet". =8-)

The "communal feeling" mentioned in this article reflects what I have come to expect from other file-sharing environments too.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2009 @ 11:17am

$25 for instant access to a digital file has always been excessive. They would have a lot more takers for $5/article and make more money and not really be that much more expensive to implement especially since the printing is on the users end. Although it would likely cut into subscription rates if files were available online for cheaper. Maybe the publishers could get some ideas from the recording industry on how they handle innovation.
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Jason, 27 Oct 2009 @ 11:53am

Damn..
Totally ruins the whole 'university-type free exchange of information' argument when the academics are pirates, too!
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NullOp, 27 Oct 2009 @ 12:42pm

Locked!
Being a former medical professional I can tell you locking up research info behind paywalls is a heinous crime! The only reason it is done is to milk the information cow! Its similar to pharmaceutical companies charging ridiculous amounts for the drugs they sell. It's essentially stealing. Worst of all, it is usually ends up being stealing from the patient. But the current medical industry is all about revenue. In general, the patient comes last!
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Ben (profile), 27 Oct 2009 @ 12:47pm

Parallels to the music industry
The journal companies are clearly in the paper-selling business! It's an out dated business model :o)
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2009 @ 1:03pm

Is it your contention that anyone who supports the rule of law as reflected by the provisions of Title 17 are "copyright maximalists"? Certainly Messrs. Nimmer, Lessig and Patry agree, as does virtually every other lawyer who practices within the field of copyright law, that the downloading and uploading of copyrighted works without the permission of the rights holders is an illegal act.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2009 @ 1:19pm

Re:
I miss the days when trolls would actually read the site they were trolling, resulting in trolling that was actually...you know...not terrible.
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Vic, 27 Oct 2009 @ 1:45pm

Same goes for scientists...
... on social networks. On LiveJournal there is a group called scientists. I'd estimate that about 70% of all posts there are... "article requests"! And usually it is a student asking fellows for an article/paper that is unavailable at their local university's library and too expensive to request elsewhere...

For the last 3 years I have not seen an unfulfilled request!
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Richard (profile), 27 Oct 2009 @ 2:41pm

Re: Same goes for scientists...
The practice of sending out preprints/reprints on request long predates the internet - in fact the web was invented as a means of automating the process. When you publish in a journal you generally get a pile of free reprints of your article which you send out to anyone who requests them.

The journals also generally don't mind if you make a version of your article available on your university site - provided it isn't exactly the same as the published one. Usually this means that it is an expanded version!
If you want a copy of a paper - just go to the author's site - or send an email. Generally you will get what you want.

I've never known a journal complain about this in over 30 years of publishing in academic journals and conferences.

(The main advantage of using the official journal site will generally be searchability etc.)
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Jason, 27 Oct 2009 @ 3:41pm

Re:
No, it is my contention (you were, of course talking to me, right?) that the law as written is stupid - spherical asshole stupid!

What is a spherical asshole (so glad you asked!)? That which presents the same aspect regardless of the angle of approach. Here on the intarwebs we use the shorter nickname, 'troll.'
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Mike Masnick (profile), 27 Oct 2009 @ 4:42pm

Re:
Is it your contention that anyone who supports the rule of law as reflected by the provisions of Title 17 are "copyright maximalists"?

I said no such thing. There are plenty of people who believe in copyright law who recognize that file sharing is a lot more nuanced an issue than immoral kids "stealing" stuff. That was the point. I'm sorry if that was not clear.

that the downloading and uploading of copyrighted works without the permission of the rights holders is an illegal act.

I didn't say it was legal. Please read the post before you make such baseless claims.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2009 @ 5:57pm

You know it's amazing how some of the research that's done is funded by tax dollars, some if funded by entities other than the journals, the research is being conducted and written by researchers/scientists and then all the journals have to do is merely publish the results and they get a monopoly on the material for a very long time. Others do the substantial majority of work and the journals reap the benefits from the work of others.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2009 @ 5:59pm

Re:
"Is it your contention that anyone who supports the rule of law as reflected by the provisions of Title 17 are "copyright maximalists"?"

Anyone who believes that intellectual property rights should last nearly as long as they currently do are intellectual property maximists.
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Andreea, 24 Feb 2010 @ 1:03pm

Diet
Hey guys, I have a question. I'm currently on this HCG diet, and I was wondering if it was good or not to keep a diary of what I'm eating. What do you think?
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Bryan, 26 Apr 2010 @ 2:18pm

Wow
Wow. That's funny that it takes file sharing to gain access to data like this. Just goes to show there's more than one way to use file sharing programs. HCG Diet
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HCG Diet Info, 6 Aug 2010 @ 11:56am

Wow
This will help me alot. I am adding this to my a favorites in case I need to refer back to it.
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air ambulance company, 27 Oct 2010 @ 10:10am

air ambulance company
Thanks for sharing nice post
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HCG Diet Dangers, 4 Nov 2010 @ 8:29am

HCG Diet Dangers
That is actually really frightening. Can't believe that's happening. HCG diet dangers
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giterdonedave, 29 May 2011 @ 11:10pm

HCG Diet
I am an HCG diet user and prove to myself that it really works and I am very confident about it, I made it my business
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HCG, 29 Aug 2011 @ 12:06am

I agree with the list comment about it being frightening. Just goes to show how technology changes so quickly.
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Shiva Ashmol, 12 Feb 2014 @ 12:14pm

The other question...
So.... being a medical student trying to submit a thesis proposal and getting jammed by $31/article price tags... (oh, and I live in South Africa... on a South African student living allowance.... $31 is more than I pay for 2 weeks of groceries.)

Does anyone have the name/url of this amazing free open forum I keep reading about? Or do I need to go torr and deep net this thing?
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