I'm sure everyone here is familiar with the ethics and legalities
of copywrited data so there is no need to elaborate on previous messages.
A topic I would like to again raise (from last year?)
is at what point does a "Scientific Database" become more accurately
described as a "Restricted Access Database". I.e., At what point does
a scientific database become a privilege for rich/financially
well off laboratories to the exclusion of nearly everyone else
in these fields of scientific endeavor?
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To help set up the sums, I would like to use the perspective of
an XRD scientist's weekly wage as an indicator/unit of a
laboratory's/country's purchasing power - using the US as the
standard for purchasing power on the upper most part of the scale.
(For an American scientist, would it be too over the top to
suggest an average wage of US$650 per week?)
In this regard the academic license of ~US$400 per year for the
Inorganic Structure Database (ISD) is not only reasonable, but quite an
enlightened policy - (~0.6 of the above US scientist's weekly wage).
However, from the perspective of an XRD scientist in a nation receiving
around US$2.5 to US$10 per week, things would look very different.
Using the "generous" wage of $10 per week, the ISD is 40 weeks wages.
(To put this in the perspective of a US scientist on $650 per week - the
equivalent cost of the ISD would be $26,000)
To extend this to the ICDD:-
From my reading of the ICDD product information, to initially purchase
the ICDD PDF-2 CD-ROM database for PC (US$6,100 less 30% academic
discount), is US$4,270; or 8.54 weeks wages for that above US scientist.
Again for a scientist in another country receiving a wage of US$10 per
week, the ICDD PDF2 is 427 weeks wages - 8.2 years worth of wages
to put a usable number on it.
(To again put this in the perspective of a US scientist on $650 per week - the
equivalent cost of the ICDD PDF2 on CD-ROM would be $277,550)
Even if an apparently very generous 90% discount was applied to the initial
purchase of the ICDD database for a financially disadvantaged lab (US$610),
based again, a scientist on a of $10 per week would require 61 weeks wages
for purchase (the above US Scientist's equivalent - $39,650).
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It would thus be interesting to find out what percentage of XRD and related
labs would never be able to afford the ISD and/or the ICDD databases based
on the economics. And at what point, does it become financially impossible
in practical terms for a laboratory to afford one of these databases -
which are becoming (if not already) essential for being able to perform
up to date, modern research.
(I'll leave calculations in the earnings perspective of PhD students to
someone else?) :-)
Cheers,
Lachlan.
PS: As some of the above logic may be deeply flawed, corrections are
probably best sent to the list so that the any bad "memes" released
into the environment can be preventively treated. If the above sums
have flawed starting values, feel free to recalculate. I was basing
the numbers of $2.5 to $10 per week as a scientist's wages based on
articles in Nature and New Scientist, plus email correspondence with
colleagues.
PPS: With regards to a prior comment that (copywrite) "rules are violated
so much frequently", perhaps an objective conclusion is that a significant
proportion of scientists are genetically predispositioned(sp?) to
criminal activities?