As responses so far show, there appears to be a range of opinions
on how to handle this situation. As for myself, as long as a
person has an affiliation or I know how they will use my publications,
I would send them a copy. If a person indicates no professional
affiliation, does not include their last name (a red flag for sure),
and is not clear how or why they want the articles, I would say
sorry, I can't provide a copy but you should be able to get
a copy from your local library (depending upon where they are
located; in NYC the mid-Manhattan library is the best source).
If I get a response back basically saying "Hey, you owe me, bud!",
I feel like I might respond back with "And F' you if you can't take
a joke" but, realizing that this might cause some of the more
psychotically oriented to stalk and attack me, I would probably
say that I'm sorry that you feel that way but I am under no obligation
to provide you a copy. After all, you can always buy copies from
the publishers.
I must be getting on in years because I remember when people used
sent out postcards for reprints because they were not available in
electronic form. If a researcher didn't have funds to pay for paper
reprints, well, NO ONE got reprints unless the author made them
locally and perhaps got the department to cover the cost of photocopying
a few copies (I remember waiting over a year to get a copy of
Schneider & Shiffrin's two part 1977 paper in Psych Review --
they had gotten so many requests for these long papers that they
actually had to get a grant to cover the cost of reprints and were
lucky to get the money). I remember talking with friends whose
departments couldn't cover the cost of reprints and had to cover
the cost themselves, making the reprints all that more precious.
Today, there is the automatic assumption that one can get an electronic
copy. Maybe this is true because anything in electronic form can
make it to the internet. But an author who has no obligation to send
copies to people that will use it in unknown ways.
So, in summary, it is my view that getting copies of articles from an
author, especially if the author does NOT OWN THE COPYRIGHT
TO THEM, is a privilege and not a right. Rudeness on the part of
the requester makes the probability of obtaining a copy, at least from
the author, vanishingly small.
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
P.S. I wonder about an independent researcher who has no friends
associated with a university, even as a student, who can't get copies
of articles.
------------ Original Message ------------
On Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:40:56 -0800, Rob Weisskirch wrote:
TIPSfolk,
Recently, I got a request for pdfs of two articles I had published. The
request came from someone who identified himself as an "independent
researcher" who claimed not to have access to the two journals (mainstream
ones--none that were esoteric). His email did not include his last name
nor any affiliation. But, it clearly was not spam.
I wrote back and declined to send them because there was not a clear
affiliation with an university, press, or other organization. He wrote back
and said that he was shocked, my work is not secret, that it is supported
by taxpayers, that I'm unprofessional, etc.
I replied again that I did not think that his unaffiliated identity met the
requirements under the copyright transfer. I also informed him that I
respected the journals and if he would provide an affiliation, I'd be happy
to send the work.
Am I being too picky?
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