Published September 8, 2007 | https://doi.org/10.59350/224gv-wx339

Wiley and eMolecules: unacceptable; an explanation would be welcome

Creators & Contributors

Feature image

Some readers may have been surprised why I got agitated ( Wiley and eMolecules: Unacceptable) from a spam letter from eMolecules – after all we get umpteen SPAM a day, we had probably swapped emails and had even talked about collaboration. Yes – I had offered eMolecules 250 000 MOPAC calculations as Open Data. [it stalled because I couldn't trivially get them out of DSpace.] Now I am glad I didn't because they would have probably ended up being resold.
This is an offer to Wiley (or eMolecules) to explain why they feel they are legally and morally allowed to copyright data and resell it. This blog is developing a tradition of offering publishers a chance to put their view in a highly public forum, so I would be grateful of a reply. (Wiley is the only large publisher who hasn't responded to comments about them on this blog). I promise I will log your reply in toto and verbatim.
Wiley copyrights data. eMolecules helps sell this copyrighted data back to the community. How many of you spotted the copyright in the last post:
chemgate5.PNG
But You can't do this, can you? Data are not copyrighttable. It's not just the Database Compilation that is copyrighted, but the spectrum itself. Surely that's not allowed?
Even large commercial publishers like Elsevier agree that data can't be copyrighted. see my blog (THANK YOU ELSEVIER!).
But Wiley not only copyright data, they force authors to hand over the copyright of scientific data when they publish in individual scientific papers. Here's an example: I suggest you read it yourself because if I reproduced completely I might get approached by Wiley's lawyers, who have been known to threaten to sue for stealing 10 data points. And I have a lot more than 10 data points in this example.
angewandte.PNG
Let's look at the contents of this supporting information; first a table
angewandte1.PNG
A table of data or a creative work protectable by copyright?
angewandte2.PNG
Figures – works of art? Therefore copyrightable? No. An essential means for communicating scientific data. The table wouldn't make very much sense if we didn't know what the molecules are.
and the spectrum:
angewandte3.PNG
This was produced by a machine. A creative work? Well it's got more than 10 data points, but they are still data.
(The irony is that if I retyped all the data and redrew all the spectra It would not be violating anything).
Note: Authors are REQUIRED to submit this data as prrof that they have done the experiement and done it correctly. They are also REQUIRED to give it to the publisher.
(To anticipate one response – I realise that not all entries in ChemGate come from Wiley journals – some are private contributions, and presumably some are abstracted from competitor journals. But I would be amazed if there were not entries corresponding to Wiley journals. Since ChemGate only allow me to look at 3 entries for free – what an insult – I cannot search for myself. And no, I do not want any more free access).
You might think I am being oversensitive – surely we could go ahead and use this data? Wel,, I talked to a senior executive of Wiley a year ago and asked him why they had the copyright symbol on the supplemental data – his reply was simple – so we can resell the data.
So my Open questions to Wiley and eMolecules (Klaus thanked me for the publicity so his answer will be highly visible):

  • Why do you feel you are legally or morally allowed to copyright single data instances?
  • Why do you require authors to hand over copyright of data to Wiley?

I will write more later on why this activity is so detrimental to modern science and why chemists and librarians so no longer accept it.
If you can give an answer which convinces the like

Additional details

Description

Some readers may have been surprised why I got agitated ( Wiley and eMolecules: Unacceptable) from a spam letter from eMolecules – after all we get umpteen SPAM a day, we had probably swapped emails and had even talked about collaboration. Yes – I had offered eMolecules 250 000 MOPAC calculations as Open Data.

Dates

Issued
2007-09-08T18:07:00Z
Updated
2007-09-08T18:07:00Z