Ethical Online Publishing

Seven years ago, Google Books has been charged with copyright infringement due to scanning over 20 million of books without permission and has published them online to the public (Stempel, 2012). The public can obtain the accessibility to the books from the search result provided by Google and this service has evoked a few publications to complain (Harris, 2012).

Finally, the law suit between Google and major publications has finally reached an agreement that Google Books can continue to allow the public to access the books online with only 20% of the content before purchase. On the other hand, publishers can also decide whether to participate in Google Library Project and sign an agreement with Google individually (Albanesius, 2012).

In terms of ethical publishing principles, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) stated that "All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for it. Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to: a) conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data; b) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and on c) final approval of the version to be published. Conditions (a), (b), and (c) must all be met" (King, 2012).

As a university student, I often access Google Books to find sources for various topics while I am doing my assignments. Although I could not access the whole book, it still helped me sometimes if the pages which were allowed to access were the sources I needed, depends on my luck; if the pages which were helpful were blocked from me, then I have to search again for other sources which cost me times.

However, I also believe that we should give respect to the authors and the publication of the books by purchasing them or reading them legally. Perhaps, universities can cooperate with Google Library Projects to provide their students with free access into the books for the benefits of students; Google can fulfil its contribution responsibilities to the society as well.  

(337 words)

References

Albanesius, C 2012, ‘Google, Publishers Settle Book-Scanning Lawsuit’, PCMag.com, last viewed 8 November 2012, <http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410569,00.asp>

Harris, P 2012, ‘Google Reaches Library Project Settlement in Court Case with Publishers’, The Guardian, last viewed 8 November 2012, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/04/google-library-project-settlement-court-case-publishers>  

King, C. R. 2012, ‘Ethical Issues in Writing and Publishing’, Oncology Nursing Society, last viewed 8 November 2012, <http://www.ons.org/Publications/CJON/AuthorInfo/WritingSupp/Ethics>  

Stempel, J 2012, ‘Google Urges End to Authors’ Digital Book Lawsuit’, Reuters, 27 July 2012, last viewed 8 November 2012, <http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/27/net-us-google-books-lawsuit-idUSBRE86Q15Y20120727>