Manzar Md Dilshad, Salahuddin Mohammed, Kedir Muktar Sano, Chattu Vijay Kumar, Warren Spence David, Pandi-Perumal Seithikurippu R
Department of Nursing, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Majmaah University, Al Majma'ah, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan-Aman, Ethiopia.
Front Public Health. 2019 Dec 18;7:377. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00377. eCollection 2019.
One of the most difficult challenges in carrying out global health research in the developing world is the issue of copyright protection of questionnaires. The current reality is that research in the developing world is often hampered by inadequate or even non-existent budgetary support. From our point of view, an additional hindrance to carrying out research in developing countries is the insistence by holders of questionnaire copyrights that they are paid for the use of their testing instruments. One adverse consequence of demands for compensation by copyright holders may be that worthwhile research is impeded or even prevented. It is argued that the practice of charging non-funded research projects for the use of copyrighted questionnaires denies inclusion of data on world minorities, and thus prevents the potential benefits that such data could provide. In this commentary, we focus on copyrighted instruments and the restrictions that they often represent for researchers in the developing world. More broadly, we argue that to the extent that research in the developing world is impeded by demands for developed world levels of compensation for the use of proprietary tests, the development of vital health programs that are designed to serve these populations can be adversely affected. Several strategies for rectifying inequities posed by current copyright policies are suggested for the promotion of health research in the developing world.
在发展中国家开展全球健康研究面临的最艰巨挑战之一是问卷的版权保护问题。当前的现实情况是，发展中国家的研究常常因预算支持不足甚至根本没有预算支持而受阻。在我们看来，在发展中国家开展研究的另一个障碍是问卷版权所有者坚持要求为使用其测试工具付费。版权所有者要求赔偿可能产生的一个不利后果是，有价值的研究受到阻碍甚至无法进行。有人认为，向无资金支持的研究项目收取使用版权问卷的费用，会导致世界少数群体的数据无法纳入研究，从而无法获得这些数据可能带来的潜在益处。在这篇评论中，我们关注受版权保护的工具以及它们常常给发展中国家的研究人员带来的限制。更广泛地说，我们认为，如果发展中国家的研究因要求为使用专有测试支付与发达国家相当的费用而受阻，那么旨在服务这些人群的重要健康项目的发展可能会受到不利影响。为促进发展中国家的健康研究，我们提出了几种纠正当前版权政策所造成不公平现象的策略。
