Re: Medline abstracts copyrighted or not?

As I understand it, the purpose of permitting the downloading and sharing of abstracts is to enable people to decide which full papers to purchase. The abstracts themselves are in the public domain. Crediting NLM is a courtesy.

As one engaged in doing this kind of secondary research I offer a caveat: abstracts do not necessarily reflect accurately the contents of the paper. Often they more accurately reflect the agenda of the person who has written the abstract. Most of the news reports on medical "breakthroughs" in the popular press reflect the practice of reporters to work from abstracts rather than complete papers.

 Miryam Ehrlich Williamson, Journalist/Author: Health and Science  <miryam@mwilliamson.com> / <http://www.mwilliamson.com>

On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 16:55:02 -0400, Joan . <nursejorn_1[_at_]hotmail.com> wrote:
: I have read the copyright information through Pubmed and I am not
: clear on the issue of fair use. If I do a search on Pubmed and
: download the
: citations and abstracts (when available) for further review to
: determine which references would be worth purchasing the full text
: article, is
: downloading those abstracts considered fair use as long as I
: include all identifying information to acknowledge the NLM?
:
: They state ""Government information at NLM Web sites is in the
: public
: domain. Public domain information may be freely distributed and
: copied, but it is requested that in any subsequent use the National
: Library of Medicine (NLM) be given appropriate acknowledgement."
:
: I cannot imagine locating hundreds of abstracts and need to request
: permission for every author to download those abstracts for review
: and/or to share them with a colleague to decide which full text
: articles to purchase. It seems to me that this should be considered
: fair use for research purposes but I would be wrong since it would
: part of business which is profit.
:
: Thank you for feedback.
:
: Joan
:
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Received on Wed Apr 13 2005 - 02:05:01 GMT