IP Outreach Research > IP Use and Awareness
Reference
| Title: | Research Tool Access in the Age of the IP Society: Results from a Survey of Japanese Scientists |
| Author: | John P Walsh [Georgia Institute of Technology], Hsin-I Huang |
| Source: | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
| Year: | 2007 |
Details
| Subject/Type: | IP Protection |
| Focus: | Access to Information, Copyright, Patents |
| Country/Territory: | Japan |
| Objective: | To examine the acquisition and creation of intellectual property (IP) in the scientific community, and the effect of IP protections on the conduct of scientific research. |
| Sample: | 984 Japan-based mostly academic scientists |
| Methodology: | Web-based survey |
Main Findings
12% of respondents reported having acquired protected intellectual property (IP) for use in their research in the last five years. 92% classified their most recent acquisition as a research tool or input. Almost half the respondents said that the need to license outside technology had increased.
Overall, the most popular method of acquisition of IP was the use of material transfer agreements (MTAs) (used by 29% of public researchers). Non-exclusive licenses ranked second with 12%. Exclusive licenses ranked third with 6%. 11% of respondents reported that they had experienced difficulties in attempting to acquire IP-protected technologies. Difficulty in obtaining IP resulted in delayed research (2.5% of those experiencing difficulties), changing research (8%), and abandoning research (1%). The main reasons for changing/abandoning research were “individual royalties too high” and “overly complex patent licensing negotiations”.
In total, 48% of respondents reported having created IP eligible for protection. The most-used method to protect IP was patents (used by 87%), followed by copyright (16%); informal protection methods were “delayed publication” (21%), followed by “withholding data/information” (16%), and by “not publishing at all” (13%).
88% of respondents reported that their scientific work had been published, mostly by the authors themselves/their departments (69%), or in peer-reviewed journals (25%). The most important motivations for publishing the results of scientific work were “to inform others” (91%), “to document the work in an archival way” (67%), “to gain/justify research funding” (65%), and “to gain credits for academic advancement” (64%). Preventing others from acquiring IP protections did not appear to be a primordial motivation for publishing scientific work.
The decision as to how/where to publish depended on the following criteria: prestige (77%), dissemination (68%), and timeliness (38%). Only 3% had used alternative, open access licensing models. Generally, access to scientific literature was perceived to have become easier. Still, 19% of respondents reported difficulties in gaining access to scientific literature. Difficulties in accessing copyrighted scientific literature resulted in delayed research, but only very rarely in abandoning a research project.
Data from publicly funded sources was used by 51%, about 13% of which reported having experienced difficulties in obtaining such data. The most-cited problems experienced were problematic legal terms and conditions, and high costs. These difficulties resulted in “some negative effects on research” (64%), “serious negative effects” (12%) or “no effects” (15%).
In view of the data, the authors see very little evidence of an anti-commons problem: the vast majority of researchers have been largely unaffected by others’ IP protections. However, they see potential for improvement when it comes to accessing others’ copyrighted materials.
[Date Added: Nov 20, 2008 ]