Journal of the American Society for Information Science
Vol 42 Number 6 1991 page 464
Letter to the EditorSeeking Permission To Use ISI's Proprietary Databases
Sir:
Information Scientists are well aware that the availability of the Science Citation Index® (SCI)® and Social Sciences Citation Index® (SSCI®), covering the period 1945 to the present, has stimulated a wide variety of citation-based studies. These studies are frequently based upon the use of the printed volumes of SCI, SSCI, but also the electronic versions— SCISEARCH® and SOCIAL SCISEARCH®—as well as the CD-ROM versions of both the SCI and SSCI.
We encourage scholars everywhere to utilize these data bases for appropriate studies, but respectfully request that all such uses recognize the proprietary nature of these databases. We ask that our registered trademarks be respected by the use of the appropriate ®symbols. Further, it is imperative that all authors of studies making extensive use of data from these databases obtain written permission prior to the study. Upon publication, authors should indicate that the databases are used with written permission of the copyright holder.
To encourage scholarly studies and to assure compliance with copyright laws, our research department is at the dis posal of scholars and editors everywhere for refereeing manuscripts based on our databases. These would include, not only SCI and SSCI, but also the Arts & -Humanities Citation Index®and our chemistry files. Finally, ISI tapes are also leased for a variety of retrieval and dissemination purposes. However, under no circumstances are users permit ted to create derivative tapes or databases without our prior permission.
Eugene Garfield
President
Institute for Scientific Information
Philadelphia, PA 19104