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Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

sci-hub.io

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Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

#81

Post by Kristine1975 »

tombrossman wrote: post #59
StavrosK wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not caring about security, it's just not wanting to get blocked by firewalls. I don't think you can seriously argue that pirate sites care about security when the biggest thing on a page is an adware-installing, fake "DOWNLOAD" button.

How does HTTPS help circumvent firewalls? I wasn't aware this was a feature. My understanding is that a firewall blocking file-sharing sites would do so whether the site was HTTP or HTTPS. My point is that by using HTTPS, these sites have demonstrated a higher level of proficiency with security tools than many more popular mainstream sites. I agree the scammy fake download buttons are a problem though, but that's wha…

How does HTTPS help circumvent firewalls?

The firewall cannot do deep packet inspection on encrypted connections, since it cannot decrypt the data: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_packet_inspection

Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

#82

Post by mooseburger »

nokya wrote: post #73

I am happy she is doing this. The price that paywalls are charging for accessing research papers is unacceptable: the money does not flow back to the researchers, nor to the institutions. Most of the paywalled research has been sponsored by taxpayer money and hence should be publicly accessible or at a very low "maintenance fee".

She? Is there someone publicly affiliated with the project?

Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

#83

Post by temp »

mooseburger wrote: post #82
nokya wrote: post #73

I am happy she is doing this. The price that paywalls are charging for accessing research papers is unacceptable: the money does not flow back to the researchers, nor to the institutions. Most of the paywalled research has been sponsored by taxpayer money and hence should be publicly accessible or at a very low "maintenance fee".

She? Is there someone publicly affiliated with the project?

Yes, Alexandra Elbakyan, a researcher from Kazakhstan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub

Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

#84

Post by [deleted] »

mooseburger wrote: post #82
nokya wrote: post #73

I am happy she is doing this. The price that paywalls are charging for accessing research papers is unacceptable: the money does not flow back to the researchers, nor to the institutions. Most of the paywalled research has been sponsored by taxpayer money and hence should be publicly accessible or at a very low "maintenance fee".

She? Is there someone publicly affiliated with the project?

[deleted]

Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

#85

Post by itg »

mooseburger wrote: post #82
nokya wrote: post #73

I am happy she is doing this. The price that paywalls are charging for accessing research papers is unacceptable: the money does not flow back to the researchers, nor to the institutions. Most of the paywalled research has been sponsored by taxpayer money and hence should be publicly accessible or at a very low "maintenance fee".

She? Is there someone publicly affiliated with the project?

Yes, Russian neuroscientist Alexandra Elbakyan.

Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

#86

Post by germanier »

lambdaelite wrote: post #52
kasbah wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firstly, copying isn't the same as taking. More importantly most of the scientists want their research to be read and studied as widely as possible but have their careers to worry about. The journal system is being widely criticised but academics are not in the best position to take action against it. The dissemination of knowledge, with it's potential for reducing inequality and increasing social mobility, is much m…

So why not email the corresponding author? I have yet to not get (or give) a manuscript that way. From my own perspective, each time I respond I'm possibly getting another citation. It's also a great form of networking.

What's the practical difference between getting any paper you need from the authors and getting any paper you need from such a website? Except much more work for anyone in the former case without any benefit.

Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

#87

Post by lambdaelite »

wolfgke wrote: post #67
lambdaelite wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One guidance for the ethical side are the guidelines agreed upon by professional associations. I can't think of any that condone copyright infringement.

Another guidance for the ethical side is the concrete behaviour of working scientists: If they would send you the paper if you asked them by email, this is a clear statement that copyright violation is perfectly okay.

At least in my discipline, authors either retain copyright to their manuscript and can disseminate that freely, or they are able to personally disseminate the final published article (sometimes including on their own website). No copyright transgression occurs in this case.

Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

#88

Post by smanzer »

cyphar wrote: post #76
smanzer wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do. They route it to the editor (senior academic), who routes it to appropriate reviewers. I think that the editor does it for free too in many cases. I feel like running ads on the site would pay for the bandwidth, only thing a totally free service couldn't replace is the prestige :(

"Prestige" of a peer-reviewed article in a particular journal isn't the most important thing. What matters is how well-cited your work is. Peer-review is done by contributors to a journal, so you could get the same from a free service.

Citations help you out in the long-time limit for sure; "worlds 7th most cited chemist" is definitely an improvement on "another dude with a bunch of Nature papers." But I would imagine that when you are going toward important early-career milestones (postdoc/assistant prof/tenure), they are mostly looking at your recent work, which will not have had time to accrue too many citations unless it is the absolute hottest thing. In those cases, journal ranking may be a bigger differentiator. I don't know how one would fix this.

Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

#89

Post by njharman »

cyphar wrote: post #79

I didn't know that you could raid ships using a website(!). In all seriousness, the act of "sharing the collective knowledge of mankind publicly" isn't morally equivalent to attacking ships and killing people. We should stop using terms that are clearly propaganda created by the film and music industry to try to muddy the waters.

I agree completely. We should also start owning the term and framing the debate around it. Cast it in positive anti-establishment terms. Like pirate radio, Robin Hood, V4vendetta. Lone, beleaguered hero(s) fighting for the peoples against tyrannical and oppressive regimes.

Re: Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

#90

Post by snake117 »

Cyph0n wrote: post #32
travjones wrote: post #19

I've used sci-hub a few times. It's a little buggy and not every article can be accessed, but it works well enough to try when I'm not on campus. $30 to read a single article is ridiculous anyway and presents a barrier to scientists who don't have, can't afford, or don't want to pay for access. I hope sci-hub stays up and improves for some time.

If you're a student, your university likely has a proxy service that allows you to access journals from anywhere using your credentials. My previous uni gives access to alumni for life, so I can access journals for free from wherever.

I frequently took advantage of this when I was a student. It was amazing that I could bypass any paywall and get access to all the journals/articles that I needed either for my courses or my own curiosity.

Unfortunately, that great privilege was revoked when I stopped paying tuition (aka graduated).

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