The Coalition for Responsible Sharing has noticed that scholarly collaboration network ResearchGate has removed from public view a significant number of copyrighted articles it is hosting on its site. ResearchGate has not shared any information with the Coalition about this change. Nevertheless, we welcome this if it is a first step towards operating ResearchGate’s service in copyright-compliance. At this point, not all violations have been addressed and ResearchGate will need to take additional steps to cease unauthorized distribution of research articles.

Members of the Coalition for Responsible Sharing have stressed in previous communication that they strongly support responsible sharing of research and we are prepared to work with ResearchGate to ensure that sharing respects the needs of all stakeholders, especially those of the research community. There are solutions available that will benefit all stakeholders and provide seamless access to high-quality, peer-reviewed research.

Issued October 10, 2017 and signed by: American Chemical Society (chair), Brill, Elsevier, Wiley, Wolters Kluwer.