On Tue, 18 Nov 2025 at 18:13, Joel Ewing < [email protected]> wrote:
> Note that the information about content of all IBM System Journal > articles (1962 - 2008) are available in the Association for Computing > Machines Digital Library at > https://dl.acm.org/loi/isyj and you can do searches by author or title, > > Looking at the what articles are in each issue (titles, abstract when > available) does not seem to require an ACM login. I have a lifetime > ACM membership w digital library, but even after login I can't see the > actual article text -- that seems to require an IEEE annual membership, > although perhaps there is a way to purchase individual articles. > IEEE Xplore provides access to both the Systems Journal and the Journal of R&D, but as you say, it's not free. And there doesn't seem to be an option to buy an individual article (but see below). You can buy a personal subscription to all of Xplore, but not just those IBM journals. Many (most?) university libraries - certainly those with an engineering school - provide online access to their students and perhaps alumni. I am a current part-time student at my uni (yeah, 50+ years later I'm back at school...), and I have full access. One thing of interest is that each article in the Systems Journal (I haven't checked the pre-merger J of R&D) carries this text (for older issues): "Copyright 1978 by International Business Machines Corporation. Copying is permitted without payment of royalty provided that (1) each reproduction is done without alteration and (2) the Journal reference and IBM copyright notice are included on the first page. The title and abstract may be used without further permission in computer-based and other information-service systems. Permission to republish other excerpts should be obtained from the Editor." and this slight variation for newer ones: "©Copyright 2008 by International Business Machines Corporation. Copying in printed form for private use is permitted without payment of royalty provided that (1) each reproduction is done without alteration and (2) the Journal reference and IBM copyright notice are included on the first page. The title and abstract, but no other portions, of this paper may be copied or distributed royalty free without further permission by computer-based and other information-service systems. Permission to republish any other portion of the paper must be obtained from the Editor. 0018-8670/08/$5.00 © 2008 IBM" So it seems clear that anyone could put some or all of the abstracts (which are more than just the indexes) online on a web site without copyright concerns, and could make print copies of actual articles "for private use", which sounds like simply "not for commercial use" to me. I note the "$5.00" at the end of the second notice, and surmise that this is the per-article "royalty" that would be payable if you did want to do something outside the coverage of the "without payment of royalty" section. But probably these are all terms of art in the copyright law world, so don't trust my advice, IANAL, etc. Tony H. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
