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Sci-Hub: Removing barriers in the way of science

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

#191

Post by czr80 »

alphydan wrote: post #156
Cyph0n wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ab…

Probably a researcher in Senegal has access through this: http://www.research4life.org/about/

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

#192

Post by pervycreeper »

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".

Simply by doing this, she has become one of the greatest single contributors to science as a whole in our era. Heroic.

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

#193

Post by alphydan »

czr80 wrote: post #191
alphydan wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ab…

Probably a researcher in Senegal has access through this: http://www.research4life.org/about/

I specifically chose the journal above, because it's not included in that initiative.

Research4life only gives access to what the first world thinks the third world should concern itself with. Namely >. I think it's a generous initiative, but it misses the point of open access.

If you're poor and passionate about math, theoretical physics, or some branches of computer science ... then, sorry, these journals are only for the rich kids.

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

#194

Post by revelation »

mgr86 wrote: post #131
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".

I work at a small academic database as a developer. We charge a pittance compared to what a lot of the larger players in this market do. And I'm conflicted. We are a registered non profit, and are actively losing money. Developer costs, of which there are only two. Building costs--I also shovel snow!, marketing costs, hosting costs, and much more. We have the workload where we would benefit from a staff 3 times the s…

What is the unique value proposition in having your two developer team building another database?

I'm struggling to think for a good reason to have journals or databases be anything other than a PDF dump, and peer review already happens on other platforms.

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

#195

Post by JabavuAdams »

mavdi wrote: post #184
JabavuAdams wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In my experience US, Canada and Commonwealth are the ones obsessed with (positively or negatively) ethnicity and race.

Race, yes, but nobody born here asks me "where are you from?" upon first meeting, whereas I get this a lot from europeans and people from more tribal societies.

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

#196

Post by alextgordon »

coliveira wrote: post #189
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have no real choice. Self-publishing means that the book doesn't count at all in the CV for grant applications, tenure applications, etc. Only the very top scientists that no longer have to fight for all these things can afford to make that "personal choice". For the rest, it's suicidal. I also have a book at a major publisher, with an outrageous price, and when I saw it "pirated" I only felt joy at the fact that…

I have published academic books like you, and I never had a problem with this once I understood the consequences of traditional publishing. These books are cataloged in good libraries and available in Amazon. If people don't have money they can go to a library and get a free copy. The day I want a book freely available in the web I will just write one and post it on in my web page. I like the idea that authors have t…

Going to a library and getting a free copy is exactly what people are doing. The library is online, freely accessible without discrimination.

Since when have we asked authors permission to add their book to a library? In many places (including the US) if you publish a book it is mandatory to submit it to a library.

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

#197

Post by tmptmp »

astazangasta wrote: post #101
smanzer wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Actually reading papers for content would be a start, and not just assuming that a first-author nature paper means you are a genius. Nature editors are human beings who use normal criteria for deciding whether a paper is good. They don't even have subject matter expertise all of the time. It makes no sense to trust the nature brand above your own judgment as a reader. There is a larger problem at work, however, of un…

Getting the almost parasitic "managers" off universities should be a top priority goal for the well-educated people. Managers should have no role in any funding, selection or other academic activities. The publishing related rent seeking is a result of poor management of university's academic affairs. The parasitic "managers" at universities, either knowingly or unknowingly, help the rent seeking "managers" at publishing businesses plunder money and thus pressurize academics to bow to the publishers. I know, this is very difficult to achieve but not impossible. Efforts like this (sci-hub) are steps in the right direction. Kudos to her.

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

#198

Post by coliveira »

alextgordon wrote: post #196
coliveira wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have published academic books like you, and I never had a problem with this once I understood the consequences of traditional publishing. These books are cataloged in good libraries and available in Amazon. If people don't have money they can go to a library and get a free copy. The day I want a book freely available in the web I will just write one and post it on in my web page. I like the idea that authors have t…

Going to a library and getting a free copy is exactly what people are doing. The library is online, freely accessible without discrimination. Since when have we asked authors permission to add their book to a library? In many places (including the US) if you publish a book it is mandatory to submit it to a library.

I have never seen an illegal library, have you? Don't try to confuse a respectable institution with pirate web sites that didn't ask permission to anyone to do their illegal thing.

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

#199

Post by pen2l »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #195
mavdi wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience US, Canada and Commonwealth are the ones obsessed with (positively or negatively) ethnicity and race.

Race, yes, but nobody born here asks me "where are you from?" upon first meeting, whereas I get this a lot from europeans and people from more tribal societies.

I'm an American, and I get asked "where are you from?" almost every time I meet a new person here (in America). I look very non-American and have an accent most people find hard to pin down, so I'm thinking that the question is just not posed to people who look and 'speak' very American.

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

#200

Post by krapp »

alextgordon wrote: post #196
coliveira wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have published academic books like you, and I never had a problem with this once I understood the consequences of traditional publishing. These books are cataloged in good libraries and available in Amazon. If people don't have money they can go to a library and get a free copy. The day I want a book freely available in the web I will just write one and post it on in my web page. I like the idea that authors have t…

Going to a library and getting a free copy is exactly what people are doing. The library is online, freely accessible without discrimination. Since when have we asked authors permission to add their book to a library? In many places (including the US) if you publish a book it is mandatory to submit it to a library.

>Since when have we asked authors permission to add their book to a library?

As far as I know, libraries in the US purchase their materials like anyone else. They have the right to lend due to the Doctrine of First Sale[1], because what they lend they legally own.

>In many places (including the US) if you publish a book it is mandatory to submit it to a library.

According to Wikipedia, in the US publishers are required to submit two copies of a published work to the Library of Congress[0], not to distribute copies to public libraries.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_deposit#United_States

[1]http://www.ala.org/advocacy/copyright/copyrightarticle/libra...

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