Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

The only thing that surprises me about this is that it took this long to happen. The lawsuit alleges that "ResearchGate takes high-quality scientific articles that are written and published by others and makes them freely available via its for-profit platform." There may be examples to the contrary (though I didn't see any) but strictly speaking, this isn't what ResearchGate does. Yes, it does harvest articles - but only open access articles. Otherwise,m what it does is ask authors to upload their personal copies (usually preprints) or (more commonly) posts a link whereby you can email the author asking them to send you a copy (via ResearchGate). All of this is perfectly legal, and will (IMO) constitute the bulk of ResearchGate's defense. This is a developing story and the Library Journal will be updated as new information becomes available. More from Inside Higher Ed

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Aug 28, 2025 8:53 p.m.

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