literaturesharing

Literaturesharing refers to the practice of distributing and exchanging scholarly literature and related resources to facilitate access, reuse, and collaboration. It includes articles, books, theses, datasets, reviews, and bibliographic information shared among researchers, educators, libraries, institutions, and the wider public.

Common forms range from formal channels such as institutional repositories, open‑access journals, preprint servers, and interlibrary loan to informal channels such as researchers’ personal pages, academic networks, and social platforms. Persistent identifiers like DOIs and ORCID IDs help track authorship and improve discoverability.

Rights and licensing are central considerations. Sharing may be governed by copyright, publisher policies, and licensing terms. Open licenses, including Creative Commons, enable reuse and redistribution, whereas some materials require permission or are restricted. Users should verify permissions, provide proper attribution, and comply with license terms.

Benefits and challenges. Literaturesharing can broaden access, accelerate discovery, enhance education, and increase research impact. It also faces barriers such as paywalls, licensing restrictions, copyright enforcement, uneven infrastructure, quality control, and concerns about versioning and misattribution.

Best practices. Deposit permissible works in reputable repositories, clearly indicate licensing and permissions, preserve metadata and version history, and use stable identifiers. Institutions, funders, and publishers can support responsible literaturesharing through clear policies, interoperable standards, and user education.