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Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone

sciencemag.org

21–30 of 398 posts

Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone

#21
post #20

What exactly is the benefit of Elsevier for researchers? Is there no free way to publish papers?

Elsevier own some really high profile journals, including The Lancet and Cell. Refusing to publish in these journals, or similar ones in terms of impact factor, is simply not an option for junior faculty in most departments. I have friends for whom "publishing in Nature, Science and/or Cell" is literally a precondition for getting tenure.

Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone

#22

I recently wanted to read a five page paper on graph theory from 1977. The company entrusted with it 40 years ago is charging $38 for it. It is just absurd. I can't imagine that the author, now long dead, would have wanted his work to be so difficult to read.

Just out of curiosity, what paper is this?

Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone

#23
post #8

It's just so funny how blatantly parasitic some of these publishing companies are.

Let's not forget that this whole business would not exist if researchers weren't so addicted to the prestige offered by glamorous journals. Most of the people complaining about scientific publishers are actually complicit in their success and dominance.

Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone

#24
post #11

They may have started servicing a need in the beginning as simply setting up some servers, and serving as a central repository, which I do not understand why this wasn't just setup by some other part like a university or research foundation for public use, but Elsevier have turned that into holding publicly-funded research hostage. You know when you are debating with somebody, and their logic runs out, they start flo…

The major thing publishers facilitated beyond simple distribution was organizing and vetting peer review. I appreciate that they have to make ends meet and that they are contributing something valuable, but it is at a point that the exorbitant price they charge people to read my work makes it basically inaccessible to many people, defeating the point of publishing it in the first place. And lets not even talk about publishers who require exclusive rights, so that technically I can't distribute copies of my own work...

Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone

#26
If anyone is having trouble accessing https://scihub.io (the site providing the papers) you can find the site directly at the ip address: https://31.184.194.81/ ... Apparently the domain name was seized. The certificate is for sci-hub.io (safe to accept). Or you can just connect to http://31.184.194.81/ if you don't want to bother with the warnings (and are ok with DOIs and papers being transmitted without encryption).

EDIT:

Their other domains:

https://sci-hub.cc (uses sci-hub.io certificate)

https://sci-hub.bz (uses a separate certificate and ip address -- 104.28.20.155)

And a tor site: scihub22266oqcxt.onion

Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone

#27
post #26

If anyone is having trouble accessing https://scihub.io (the site providing the papers) you can find the site directly at the ip address: https://31.184.194.81/ ... Apparently the domain name was seized. The certificate is for sci-hub.io (safe to accept). Or you can just connect to http://31.184.194.81/ if you don't want to bother with the warnings (and are ok with DOIs and papers being transmitted without encryption…

Or even http://sci-hub.bz/ and http://sci-hub.cc/

Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone

#28
post #8

It's just so funny how blatantly parasitic some of these publishing companies are.

Let's not forget that this whole business would not exist if researchers weren't so addicted to the prestige offered by glamorous journals. Most of the people complaining about scientific publishers are actually complicit in their success and dominance.

The "prestige," as you call it, is necessary to get a job in academia. Where you publish your research is considered a trustworthy approximation to the quality of your research, and requires a lot less time & expertise to vet.

Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone

#29

I'm sad Aaron Swartz did not live to see this unfolding. He might have been in prison now, but he would still be a world-class hero.

> He might have been in prison now

For hypothetical crimes he could've committed had he lived? Because he certainly wouldn't be in prison for things he actually did.

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