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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

#101

Post by astazangasta »

smanzer wrote: post #88
cyphar wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

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 university administration and departments using these sorts of signposts to decide who is worthy. I think both widespread managerialism in unis and a poor funding climate are both at fault.

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

#102

Post by dingaling »

Jeaye wrote: post #13

Umm, "pirate website" that uses a secure.sci-hub.io, but not actually a secure connection. Really, Let's Encrypt has made this a no-brainer. Anyone making a site should be expected to be using SSL. Especially those making anything related to anything "pirate" or "secure."

> Really, Let's Encrypt has made this a no-brainer.

Sure, if you have the time and opportunity to check that the certificate renewal has worked properly every 60 days. Once you've written a cron job, of course, to do the renewal.

For someone who's primary task isn't IT that's probably not something they want to worry about or will forget about until people complain that the SSL is broken.

Probably better to throw $ to her to buy a multi-year SSL cert from a vendor.

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

#103

Post by niels_olson »

dfc wrote: post #80
r3bl wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what are people outside of the U.S. supposed to do?

The GP is a great person to ask that question to in light of the fact that he is a student in UAE . I am curious why you assumed that GP is from the US?

Let me guess: Because the spoken language is English and the site has a clearly US-centric culture? Even more specifically, an SV culture. Have you ever seen a housing article about Fresno on the front page? New York? One could argue the bias lacked utility, but it's hardly incriminating.

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

#105

Post by fdej »

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.

Publishing in the most prestigious journals is hugely important. The first thing many academic hiring/promotion/grant committees look at is how many Nobel Prizes you've won, the second thing is how many publications you have in Nature or Science. Everything else is just for breaking ties. I've even heard that there are fields where having any conference publications counts against you.

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

#106

Post by astazangasta »

germanier wrote: post #70
srean wrote: post #11

Hope widespread knowledge about its existence does not kill it.

It's already at the receiving end of a lawsuit by Elsevier in New York. I doubt that more attention would change anything.

Death to Elsevier. I hope everyone knows the story about how they used to be involved in the international arms trade until outrage at The Lancet forced them to stop:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1809159/

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

#107

Post by njharman »

mpclark wrote: post #37
lambdaelite wrote: post #20

Silicon Valley and YC don't exactly have a stellar reputation for ethical behavior. Having a "pirate website" at the top of the news page doesn't exactly change that perception. I totally get that journals are evil, and charging money for research generated with public funds is questionable. It's very frustrating as a small entity needing to view articles, and being asked to cough up $25-50. That said, there are legi…

I too am disappointed to see this here, though the young hotheads are obviously out in force today and relishing sticking it to the man. Surely we are better than this. One of the earliest lessons I was taught, and I taught my kids, is that if somebody else has something we want and doesn't want to share it, it's not OK to just take it.

So,

If, the king, reserves all the political power to themselves you would not join (and expect your children) to not join in a revolution against them?

If corrupt gov officials & cronies. keep all the food/medical aide for themselves, you would let your family starve, sick child die before stealing what you needed?

My point is your "lesson" is overly simplistic and naive. Reality is much grayer and messier. Some believe what in other contexts would be considered unethical, is morally justified, even morally required when it is needed to combat injustice/other unethical situation. But, sometimes the means do not justify ends. (messy). Why you and your kids need critical thinking more than simplistic platitudes.

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

#108

Post by tosseraccount »

astazangasta wrote: post #98
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 :(

Plos or NLM or any number of people will host the content for free; bandwidth is not at issue.

But opening and accessing the data used in the analysis is a big problem.

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

#109

Post by krapp »

njharman wrote: post #89
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.

What might help is if someone started a file sharing site and named it after a place where pirates hung out and incorporated a pirate ship and the word "pirate" into their logo.

Then maybe if it became popular these so-called "pirates" could cast off the shame of being tarnished by an image they clearly don't embrace at all.

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