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[sdpd] Comments on COD by anonymous reviewers

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      <p>Are the COD Advisory Board members prepared to a legal<br>
action against them ?<br>
<br>
This reviewers comment received aftre the COD paper<br>
submission is a closing speech for prosecution :<br>
<br>
Integral text...<br>
<br>
&quot;As a summary of the history and current status of the COD, this paper <br>
deserves publication in J. Appl. Cryst., but since it does have some <br>
polemic aspects, perhaps it should appear in a database issue with papers <br>
from the established databases.  The paper should be very useful - but not <br>
in ways the authors intend. On publication, it will be very valuable to <br>
attorneys for the established databases.  Directive 96/9/EC of the European <br>
Parliament, and its implementation in national legislation, provide very <br>
strong intellectual property protection for databases, and this paper (and <br>
the web records of the COD) should provide ample justification for legal <br>
action against the creators of the COD and shutdown of the COD.  The <br>
Editors need to decide whether they want to become involved in such disputes.<br>
<br>
The COD is sold to the community on false pretenses.  Once errors must be <br>
corrected, changes must be tracked, there is a central repository, there <br>
are maintainers and developers, data needs to be keyed in by hand, <br>
duplicates are flagged and reviewed manually, entries are re-validated and <br>
adjusted, and web mirrors are developed, real costs are incurred - and <br>
these costs need to be paid by someone.  Ensuring that data published in <br>
the COD persists as long as needed into the future also requires real expenses.<br>
<br>
All organizations have learned that it is increasingly difficult to get <br>
volunteers for anything.  The history of all the database organizations is <br>
that they began as small groups of volunteers, who realized that the task <br>
was too big for volunteers, and that organizations were needed to ensure <br>
curation and permanence.  If the current COD volunteers are working on <br>
their own time, that is fine, but if they are &quot;borrowing&quot; time funded for <br>
other purposes, they are stealing somebody's tax dollars!  The paper as it <br>
stands in unacceptable for publication.  Statements about where the money <br>
comes from now and in the future are necessary.  There is no reason to <br>
contribute to the COD if there is doubt about its permanence.<br>
<br>
The authors do not make a case why they are wasting worldwide <br>
crystallographic resources in duplicating effort already done.  (Never mind <br>
the insanity of 3+ organizations - FIZ, Toth, MPDS, and ICDD - abstracting <br>
the same inorganic structural data!)  The existing databases serve the <br>
community well, and at a very low price.  The authors will admit that the <br>
track records of governments at supporting scientific infrastructure of any <br>
sort (and especially buried resources such as databases) are very poor.  I <br>
have no confidence that any government will fund crystallographic databases <br>
properly, and believe that a user-pays model is much better in the long <br>
term.  The fact that the PDB is &quot;free&quot; is an accident of history; the <br>
vision to create it came from a US national laboratory, and funding at a <br>
marginal level has continued since then.  Academics (especially European <br>
academics) seem to believe that information is free, and exhibit an <br>
appalling ignorance of economics, and where their own resources come from.<br>
<br>
Statements that the existing databases are &quot;too expensive&quot; are simply <br>
nonsense.  The databases are supplied to academics at very low prices, and <br>
in many countries there are national licenses, so the users actually think <br>
of them as free!  An experimentalist who needs them has at least $250,000 <br>
worth of instrumentation, so the plea that they cannot earn a few hundred <br>
dollars to license a database is disingenuous, at best.  The existing <br>
database organizations have made arrangements for developing countries, so <br>
such countries need to work with the database organizations.  Anyone who <br>
claims that teaching institutes cannot afford the fees of the usual <br>
databases has clearly never contacted the database organizations.  All of <br>
them I know will make their databases available for teaching use free of <br>
charge.  The authors simply make too many incorrect statements to let this <br>
paper be published at it stands.<br>
<br>
The ranges used to scan for duplicates (0.5 Å on cell constants and 1.2° on <br>
angles) are far too broad, and eliminate a great deal of potential utility <br>
of the COD.<br>
<br>
Reference(s) should be provided for the morphology program(s) written at <br>
Portland State, and for the partial databases of modulated and magnetic <br>
structures.  I additional to demonstrating little knowledge of economics <br>
and the law, the authors do not exhibit enough professional courtesy in <br>
their citations of existing work and resources.<br>
<br>
The authors claim in the Conclusions to have demonstrated that an <br>
alternative open access database is feasible.  My verdict is &quot;not proven&quot;.<br>
Now for the really picky bits...  There are several incorrect uses of <br>
&quot;it's&quot;.  It is not correct to talk of a &quot;CIF file&quot;; CIF is Crystallographic <br>
Information File. &quot; <br>
<br>
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