Live data from Hacker News

Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

sci-hub.io

151–160 of 225 posts

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

#151
I think people haven't totally thought this open access thing through.

First, publishing costs money, even in the digital age. It costs money to comb through submissions and decide which ones are worth pursuing. It costs money to hassle scientists into reviewing the submissions. It costs money to convert every submission into the same format. It costs money to develop and host a website to disseminate the articles. All of these things cost money.

Now, who is going to pay for it? Traditionally these costs were put onto the research institutions in the form of library subscription fees. Open access shifts this burden onto the author, and ideally grants would include that into the budget.

Even if grants include that in their budget (and many don't yet), there's a finite amount of money available for research. Shifting the cost of publishing onto grants will make funding available for actual research even smaller than it is now. In some fields publishing costs are entirely negligible compared to the cost of research, but in others it's not.

Also, open access would mean that you have to have funding in order to publish a paper. As it stands right now you don't actually need funding to do research in certain fields. A math professor at a university can devote some of his spare time to a project over several years and publish a paper on it with no costs at all. This happens all the time, not every paper has funding behind it.

I'm not necessarily arguing against open access, I just think people haven't fully explored the downsides of moving away from our current system.

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

#152
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I studied in Germany, and none of the academic institutions I know of make papers accessible to alumnis. For students, sure, but for alumnis? Never heard of it.

The local hack: get a lifetime membership at the uni computer club. This gets you a shell account on a computer inside the uni network, and Rob's your uncle. Lifetime cost is about $100 here, and that money goes to a good cause.

My uni didn't have any of that. YMMV

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

#153
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Russian neuroscientist Alexandra Elbakyan.

Kazakh.

Attributing the correct ethnicity seems to matter a lot more outside of the US, Canada, and Commonwealth.

I got an earful (screenful?) for calling a historical ethnic Russian painter Ukrainian, just because he was born in current-day Ukraine. This all predates the current conflict, and was from someone I'd consider educated, too.

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

#154
post #32

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.

> My previous uni gives access to alumni for life, so I can access journals for free from wherever.

Huh. Need to check on this, thanks. That said I hope sci-hub succeeds.

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

#155
post #142
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are occasional torrents, AFAIK. Hope you have 10tb of free space handy.

It is absolutely mind blowing to me that you can purchase that amount of storage with 20% to spare for around $500 these days. 12TB, $498 : http://www.amazon.com/Red-Desktop-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B00LO3K...

Or around $120 if you just want to archive the data and use tape:

http://www.tapeandmedia.com/quantum-lto-6-tape-ultrium-tapes...

The drive isn't cheap though, but tape is still the cheapest media for long-term archival storage.

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

#156
post #32

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.

What about poor countries who can't afford to pay for many subscriptions in the field? Should their scientists be banned from making contributions to science?

Spain is not very poor, but when I was doing research in Seville, the department simply could not afford subscriptions to most physics journals, so we had to write directly to the authors with mixed success.

How do you think a scientist in Senegal would feel about spending $6,000 [0] for access to a single journal for 5 researchers.

If the per-capita GNI is $1,000 [1], the equivalent in the US would be for your university to pay $330,000 for 5 people in your department to read _a single_ journal!!

[0] http://store.elsevier.com/product.jsp?issn=03784371 [1] http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD/countries...

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

#157
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.

Pirate is a badge of honor in these days. Think: Pirate Party.

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

#158
Welp, I used to get books, papers and software from non-legal sources when I was in undegrad, because I just couldn't afford it, now that I make some money I buy most of this stuff. The thing is, without all those resources in the past I couldn't have made it to where I am now. Just my 2 cents.

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

#159
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.

Some people also make the case that the pirates, rather than the navy, were the 'good guys' of the maritime era.
Post reply on HN