Wiley signs co-operation agreement with ResearchGate

Publisher Wiley has announced a co-operation agreement with academic networking site ResearchGate to explore ways in which the two can work together "to better support the needs of researchers through ResearchGate’s collaboration platform".

Wiley was previously a member of the Coalition for Responsible Sharing, a group of scholarly publishers and societies dedicated to spreading word that "ResearchGate’s infringing actions... are undermining the viability of scholarly research".

Wiley has now withdrawn from the Coalition "but remains firm in its mission to find ways for researchers to responsibly collaborate in a copyright compliant manner", it said.

A statement from the publisher said: "Wiley and ResearchGate are committed to the protection of intellectual property rights for authors and publishers; and through this partnership, both companies will continue to support principled sharing of content while facilitating the discovery of and access to high-quality scholarly content for researchers."

As part of the co-operation agreement, Wiley and ResearchGate will experiment with new models of journal article discovery; share insight on Wiley content usage on the ResearchGate platform; collaborate on educating users about their rights in relation to copyright-protected content by providing clear and relevant information about how and when they may share their journal articles on the network; and work to promptly identify and address any copyright-infringing public sharing of Wiley content on ResearchGate.

Judy Verses, executive vice-president of Wiley Research, said: “Content sharing platforms are a significant part of modern scholarly collaboration. ResearchGate plays an important and unique role in the research communications ecosystem and we are pleased to be working together.”

S√∂ren Hofmayer, co-founder and chief strategy officer of ResearchGate, said the agreement was a "significant" moment for the company, adding: “It shows how far we have come in a little over a decade, from industry disruptor to a trusted partner of one of the leaders in scholarly publishing. Our partnership brings real value to researchers, as well as to both companies, who are firmly committed to the advancement of scientific communication and collaboration.”

Springer Nature has also explored co-operation strategies with ResearchGate.