CRD in trouble

16 June 2013 - Copy rights

This blog is still very much committed to the CRD (Chemical Reaction Database) project under construction, see for example the previous entry here but the project has run into trouble over legal issues so it seems. A Nature article by Richard van Noorden gives a summary of the ongoing negotiations (organised by the European Commission) between scientific researchers interested in data mining and scientific publishers or rather the lack of it. The scientists have walked out. Unsurprisingly the publishers claim copy rights even when the scientists are subscribed to every journal involved through their institutions.
One of the parties involved, the Association of European Research Libraries, have published a letter to the commissioners here. In it they stress the importance of Big Data and its exploitation and the contribution it could make to scientific discovery. The issue appears specific to Europe, In the US the Fair use doctrine applies.