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Academics sharing paywalled papers with a codeword on Twitter

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Academics sharing paywalled papers with a codeword on Twitter

#11

Post by kragen »

The only "online piracy" I see here is when Elsevier demands US$30 from you to get a copy of a paper written by scientists paid for by your tax dollars, who paid Elsevier page fees to publish it. Elsevier and similar companies are the thieves here, and they have a hell of a lot of nerve to be accusing scientists of "stealing" and "piracy" for working to create the very knowledge Elsevier shamelessly exploits. (Even Elsevier's very name is a theft: they are attempting to free-ride on the goodwill of the Elzevir family of Renaissance publishers, who have no connection with them.)

Do they have the law on their side? Yeah. So did the Pope when he sentenced Galileo to life in prison for promoting heliocentrism. That doesn't mean they're in the right; that means the law is in the wrong.

Re: Academics sharing paywalled papers with a codeword on Twitter

#12

Post by esseti »

OlafLostViking wrote: post #2

I'm in the lucky position to have access to most publications legally. But I cannot imagine what to do if our library wouldn't have subscriptions. The prices most publishers are demanding are insanely high and simply not financable if you need just a dozen papers or so. Especially considering that the research and the the writing is done by scientists, the review is done by other scientists. For free. The writers eve…

And the things is (at least where i leave) that Uni pays the fees for the access. The money for the fees come from the govern (and EU). The same govern that also finances the research. Basically the govern pays twice (if not more) the same thing.

Re: Academics sharing paywalled papers with a codeword on Twitter

#13

Post by fermigier »

In France, there is a proposal, backed by an overwhelming majority of scientists, to mandate free and open access to scientific research results.

See: https://www.republique-numerique.fr/consultations/projet-de-...

Hopefully this could end up in the Law next year.

Re: Academics sharing paywalled papers with a codeword on Twitter

#14

Post by Natsu »

dalke wrote: post #8
masklinn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm in the lucky position to have access to most publications legally. But I cannot imagine what to do if our library wouldn't have subscriptions. The prices most publishers are demanding are insanely high and simply not financable if you need just a dozen papers or so. Obtaining foundational CS papers for intellectual curiosity reasons is pretty bad, they cost inane prices[0] and for that you get barely legible PD…

There's a cheaper solution for foundational papers. Go to your library and use interlibrary loan. Some libraries also have copying services. I've been trying track down a paper for the Tanimoto similarity. Quoting Wikipedia, "many sources[3] cite an unavailable IBM Technical Report [4] as the seminal reference", where [4] is: Tanimoto, T. (17 Nov 1957). "An Elementary Mathematical theory of Classification and Predict…

Hopefully the next person after you won't have to search as hard for it, though...

Re: Academics sharing paywalled papers with a codeword on Twitter

#15

Post by unexistance »

kragen wrote: post #11

The only "online piracy" I see here is when Elsevier demands US$30 from you to get a copy of a paper written by scientists paid for by your tax dollars, who paid Elsevier page fees to publish it . Elsevier and similar companies are the thieves here, and they have a hell of a lot of nerve to be accusing scientists of "stealing" and "piracy" for working to create the very knowledge Elsevier shamelessly exploits. (Even…

VERY good analogy, the law could be wrong :D

Re: Academics sharing paywalled papers with a codeword on Twitter

#16

Post by monort »

imrehg wrote: post #9

There's also /r/scholar[1], which does the same thing, and so far working really very well (for me as a physicist out of academia at the moment) [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/scholar

And they have a link to a certain indispensable service, which uses university proxies to download scientific papers.

Re: Academics sharing paywalled papers with a codeword on Twitter

#17

Post by stegosaurus »

ajuc wrote: post #3

Good for them. Living in developing country you learn to ignore copyright or you never learn anything. I don't know if it was invented as a way for developed countries to keep competive advantage, but it sure would work that way if people actually obeyed.

Mmm.

As a poor person growing up in Britain I hold the same viewpoint.

The whole argument around piracy and copyright seems to revolve around this idea of being 'too cheap' or 'not wanting to support'.

When 10GBP for some music or 100+GBP for some software package (Office, for example) is 50% or more of your monthly pay, or you have no income at all, none of those factors come in to the decision. It's the only realistic way. Would I download a car? Sure, if I could.

Thankfully nowadays with the proliferation of OSS it's much easier. And personally I've been lucky enough that now I can afford such things. But to an 18 year old me, mumblings about 'lost profits' are just rich world problems.

Re: Academics sharing paywalled papers with a codeword on Twitter

#18

Post by ckozlowski »

Apologies in advance, but when I saw this link, I expected to find an article with a non-nondescript phrase ("Blue Iguana" or some such) that would tip people off to meet in an unlisted IRC room or some such.

I realize not everyone is on top of internet culture and slang, but reading "#icanhazpdf" is a "secret codeword" makes me wonder if the whole piece is tongue-in-cheek ("I am shocked, absolutely shocked to find gambling in here!") or if the author really has discovered the internet for the first time.

Just bemused.

Re: Academics sharing paywalled papers with a codeword on Twitter

#19

Post by masklinn »

dalke wrote: post #8
masklinn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm in the lucky position to have access to most publications legally. But I cannot imagine what to do if our library wouldn't have subscriptions. The prices most publishers are demanding are insanely high and simply not financable if you need just a dozen papers or so. Obtaining foundational CS papers for intellectual curiosity reasons is pretty bad, they cost inane prices[0] and for that you get barely legible PD…

There's a cheaper solution for foundational papers. Go to your library and use interlibrary loan. Some libraries also have copying services. I've been trying track down a paper for the Tanimoto similarity. Quoting Wikipedia, "many sources[3] cite an unavailable IBM Technical Report [4] as the seminal reference", where [4] is: Tanimoto, T. (17 Nov 1957). "An Elementary Mathematical theory of Classification and Predict…

> There's a cheaper solution for foundational papers. Go to your library and use interlibrary loan.

Not sure that's really an option when not in the US.

Re: Academics sharing paywalled papers with a codeword on Twitter

#20

Post by masklinn »

Kristine1975 wrote: post #7
masklinn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm in the lucky position to have access to most publications legally. But I cannot imagine what to do if our library wouldn't have subscriptions. The prices most publishers are demanding are insanely high and simply not financable if you need just a dozen papers or so. Obtaining foundational CS papers for intellectual curiosity reasons is pretty bad, they cost inane prices[0] and for that you get barely legible PD…

FWIW, googling for your example paper has a link to a scanned PDF of part 1 as first result: http://fi.ort.edu.uy/innovaportal/file/20124/1/22-landin_cor... Part 2 is at http://www.vex.net/~trebla/tmp/p158-landin.pdf Both are quite legible. Google Scholar is also great for finding PDFs of papers.

Oh yes I know about the "haz PDF" option, I was talking about the "legitimate" one (best case scenario under the UCC copyright is life + 25, we lost Peter Landin in 2009, so there's absolutely no chance this stuff is in the public domain)
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