Since 2016, Springer Nature has been helping its authors bring more attention to their work by creating shareable links to view-only versions of their peer-reviewed research papers that can be freely-distributed to their potential readers via an initiative called SharedIt.
“SharedIt is a content sharing initiative from Springer Nature that allows authors and subscribers to easily and legally share links to free-to-read versions of research articles anywhere, including social media platforms, repositories and personal websites. All articles published in the Springer Nature owned journal portfolio and over 1,000 co-owned or partner-owned journals are included in the initiative.”
What many authors and readers do not realize is that the mass sharing of downloaded PDFs of peer-reviewed, published journal articles is usually not allowed within standard copyright agreements. The SharedIt initiative makes the sharing legal because the article PDF can only be downloaded and printed if the article has been published as an open access paper or if the viewer has a personal or institutional subscription through which they may gain access to the full-text PDF. For everyone else, the article in its entirety can be read in a free, view-only version but cannot be downloaded/saved/printed. The information, however, can still be read and further shared via the paper’s SharedIt link, even via far-reaching social media channels.
To learn more about SharedIt – see:
- Hall D. Innovations in publication: free sharing of all Biophysical Reviews’ content. Biophys Rev. 2017 Apr;9(2):67-68. doi: 10.1007/s12551-017-0253-y. Epub 2017 Mar 20. PMID: 28510084; PMCID: PMC5418491.
- Press Release (London, 17 October 2016): We’ve SharedIt! Springer Nature completes integration of its content sharing initiative across its entire owned portfolio of over 1,300 journals.
- See Your Research Soar with SharedIt: Use this sample social media plan to promote your research using your SharedIt author link.
- SharedIt: Springer Nature’s Free Content Sharing Initiative.
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