Question about attachments

[joel_yancey]

Is it permitted/decorous to attach a PDF of a peer-reviewed journal article directly to a post, possibly highlighted and/or annotated? Of course properly contextualized/summarized in the post itself. Usually a PDF can be found for most published research through a simple Google search, but of course some journals have paywalls.

 

[NorCal Dave]

Is it permitted/decorous to attach a PDF of a peer-reviewed journal article directly to a post, possibly highlighted and/or annotated? Of course properly contextualized/summarized in the post itself. Usually a PDF can be found for most published research through a simple Google search, but of course some journals have paywalls.

Usually, we copy and paste the relevant sections we're discussing followed by a link to where you're getting the study/PDF. Posting or attaching an entire article could get cumbersome and may violate "fair use" at some point. That's a question for the mods.

You copy and paste enough to get your point across and then others can go and read more if they want to.

Sometimes PDFs don't copy well and need to be cleaned up after pasting and some just don't copy. I've had to use screen shots for some PDFs.

 

[joel_yancey]

Usually, we copy and paste the relevant sections we're discussing followed by a link to where you're getting the study/PDF. Posting or attaching an entire article could get cumbersome and may violate "fair use" at some point. That's a question for the mods.

You copy and paste enough to get your point across and then others can go and read more if they want to.

Sometimes PDFs don't copy well and need to be cleaned up after pasting and some just don't copy. I've had to use screen shots for some PDFs.

Do you mean basically to screenshot sections of interest? I like that solution, definitely for certain situation and I always strive for concision. Still I would like to check with mods if attaching the entire publication is permissible, for convenience to others. And to get everyone on the same page, no pun intended.

 

[NorCal Dave]

Do you mean basically to screenshot sections of interest?

Copy and paste is the best way. That way other people can copy and paste from whatever you copied and pasted if that makes sense. It makes it easier to share. I only resort to screen shots if copy and paste doesn't work. I've found some PDFs don't allow copying, though some more experienced people here on the forum have work arounds, but for us Luddites a simple screen shot lets me share the pertinent information I'm discussing.

Still I would like to check with mods if attaching the entire publication is permissible, for convenience to others

Again, that's a question for the Mick and the mods. However, if the study in question is publicly available as a PDF, I don't see where you necessarily need to attach the entire study. A link to the PDF version of the study should be fine. You can copy and paste, or screen shot if needed, the relevant parts you're discussing, and the link should let others go read the rest of the study if they want to.

My kids are in academia, so they've hooked me up with studies from behind paywalls in the past, but if so, I'm very careful to only share relevant parts, again trying to stay within the "fair use" guidelines. My older son has paid extra when publishing to keep his work in front of paywalls, so that his stuff is publicly accessible, but I don't know if that means one can just attach a whole paper to a forum. Guess I'll have to ask him.

 

[Mick West]

For legal reasons you can't post an entire paper unless it's open source. Post relevant quotes.