Following unsuccessful attempts to jointly find ways for scholarly collaboration network ResearchGate to run its service in a copyright-compliant way, information analytics businesses, scholarly and scientific publishers and societies are now left with no other choice but to take formal steps to remedy the illicit dissemination of millions of published articles on the ResearchGate site.
A coalition of publishers, which currently includes the American Chemical Society, the American Medical Association, the American Physiological Society, the American Society of Plant Biologists, Atlantis Press, BMJ, Brill, Elsevier, Future Science Group, IEEE, IWA Publishing, KeAi Publishing, Portland Press (wholly-owned by the Biochemical Society), Wiley, Wolters Kluwer, and World Scientific Publishing, has been created to provide the scientific community and the wider public with information on activities needed to address ResearchGate’s infringing actions that are undermining the viability of scholarly research.
You can read the Coalition for Responsible Sharing’s full statement here, that gives a detailed explanation of industry concerns with ResearchGate, the user friendly solutions the site has rejected that would address these concerns and the action the coalition is taking as a result.
Update May 6, 2020: Copyright Compliance by ResearchGate Is the Only Viable Long-Term Solution
Update June 13, 2019: Coalition for Responsible Sharing: Status Report on ResearchGate
Update December 12, 2018: ASPB joins the Coalition for Responsible Sharing
Update October 23, 2018: KeAi Publishing Joins the Coalition for Responsible Sharing
Update October 10, 2018: Update: German Legal Claim
Update October 3, 2018: ACS and Elsevier ask US courts to address ResearchGate’s copyright responsibility
Update July 4, 2018: Atlantis Press Joins the Coalition for Responsible Sharing
Update April 19, 2018: Coalition for Responsible Sharing: Copyright compliance by ResearchGate is the only viable long-term solution
Update April 19, 2018: New Partner Joins the Coalition for Responsible Sharing
Update April 18, 2018: ACS and Elsevier ask court to clarify ResearchGate’s copyright responsibility
Update April 9, 2018: Coalition for Responsible Sharing: Status Report on ResearchGate
Update April 3, 2018: BMJ Joins the Coalition for Responsible Sharing
Update January 18, 2018: More Partners Joining the Coalition for Responsible Sharing
Update December 18, 2017: New partners join Coalition for Responsible Sharing
Update October 18, 2017: Coalition for Responsible Sharing issues take down notices to ResearchGate to address remaining violations
Update October 10, 2017: ResearchGate Removed Significant Number of Copyrighted Articles