Rossello, Martinelli (2023)

Source Details

Rossello, Martinelli (2023)
Title:	Breach of Academic Values and Digital Deviant Behaviour: the Case of Sci-Hub
Author(s):	Giulia Rossello and Arianna Martinelli
Year:	2023
Citation:	Rossello, G., & Martinelli, A. (2023). Breach of academic values and digital deviant behaviour: The case of Sci-Hub. UNU-MERIT. UNU-MERIT Working Papers No. 009
Link(s):	Definitive , Open Access
Key Related Studies:	Rossello, Martinelli, Ferri, and Donnellan (2022)
Discipline:	D23: Organizational Behavior • Transaction Costs • Property Rights L86: Information and Internet Services • Computer Software O34: Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
Linked by:

About the Data
Data Description:	Participants’ answers to 13 questions relating to the criteria of ideological contract, gender, non-foreign descent, and tenure employment
Data Type:	Primary data
Secondary Data Sources:
Data Collection Methods:	Survey Research (quantitative; e.g. sales/income reporting)
Data Analysis Methods:	Regression Analysis
Industry(ies):	Publishing of books, periodicals and other publishing
Country(ies):	Germany Hungary Sweden Italy Ireland Netherlands
Cross Country Study?:	Yes
Comparative Study?:	No
Literature review?:	Yes
Government or policy study?:	No
Time Period(s) of Collection:	June and October 2021
Funder(s):

Abstract

“This paper bridges the organisational psychology and the economics of science literature to examine the role of ideology-based psychological contract breach in eliciting mild deviant behaviour in academia. We provide empirical evidence of how the deterioration of academic values related to the diffusion of the “publish or perish” paradigm sparkles copyright violations through Sci-Hub. Based on a representative sample of 2849 academics working in top institutions in 6 European countries, we find that ideology-based psychological contract breach explains Sci-Hub usage, also when controlling for other trivial motivations. The magnitude of the effect depends on contextual and demographic characteristics. Females, foreign and tenured scholars are less likely to respond with digital piracy when experiencing a contract breach of academic values. Our results contribute to prevention policy design, highlight how policies restoring academic values might also address academic piracy”

Main Results of the Study

Applying an organisational psychology framework, the paper examines the impact of employment conditions relates to the inclination of piracy using Sci-Hub to access academic papers. At focus is the academics’ attitude towards relevant third parties. The underlying assumption is that academics have entered a psychological ideology-based contract considering that they are willing to accept less favourable work conditions in comparison to industry workers. The authors set out four hypotheses suggesting that the perception of an academic discontent-based contract breach, gender, foreign vs. non-foreign descent and tenure employment have a significant impact on the likelihood of copyright violation using Sci-Hub. The conclusion suggests that factors negatively affecting the academics perception of how the values underlying their decision to pursue an academic career result in a higher probability to disregard copyright and act deviant towards a relevant third party.

Policy Implications as Stated By Author

Profession and context-specific approaches to mitigate the impact of a perceived breach of ideological values on the protection of copyright

Coverage of Study

Coverage of Fundamental Issues

Issue	Included within Study
Relationship between protection (subject matter/term/scope) and supply/economic development/growth/welfare
Relationship between creative process and protection - what motivates creators (e.g. attribution; control; remuneration; time allocation)?
Harmony of interest assumption between authors and publishers (creators and producers/investors)
Effects of protection on industry structure (e.g. oligopolies; competition; economics of superstars; business models; technology adoption)
Understanding consumption/use (e.g. determinants of unlawful behaviour; user-generated content; social media)

Coverage of Evidence Based Policies

Issue	Included within Study
Nature and Scope of exclusive rights (hyperlinking/browsing; reproduction right)
Exceptions (distinguish innovation and public policy purposes; open-ended/closed list; commercial/non-commercial distinction)
Mass digitisation/orphan works (non-use; extended collective licensing)
Licensing and Business models (collecting societies; meta data; exchanges/hubs; windowing; crossborder availability)
Fair remuneration (levies; copyright contracts)
Enforcement (quantifying infringement; criminal sanctions; intermediary liability; graduated response; litigation and court data; commercial/non-commercial distinction; education and awareness)

Datasets

{{{Dataset}}}