Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone
91–100 of 398 posts
Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone
#92Elsevier and others can go something themselves. Their behavior over the last two decades has been little more than reprehensible rent-seeking. Whatever goodwill they had disappeared as they sapped with increasing ruthlessness the dollars of students and non-profits. See, e.g., one of many such figures: http://www.lib.washington.edu/scholpub/images/economics_grap... It is absurd and dishonest to call Sci-Hub "piracy"…
I don't understand academia (genuinely): Couldn't the researchers simply publish their own papers? Make torrents etc? Or are they prevented from doing that somehow?
Journals are used as a proxy for quality. A publication in "Science" or "Nature" is generally regarded as being better than a publication in, say, the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Science".
Bibliographic metrics, like the number of publications and where they are published, are use as a proxy for the quality of someone's research. It can affect grant funding and career advancement.
Researchers can publish their own papers. But researchers also tend to want that work to be disseminated, both to spread knowledge and get recognition for the work. Journals help simplify that process. A field typically has one or two main journals, which most people in the field track. It's more likely that a publication will be noticed if it's published in one of those papers.
Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has anyone got a breakdown of actual costs incurred by Elsevier? Note I don't include marketing their journals, I mean a breakdown labour costs, rent for buildings (where the building are located) and other production costs. I'd like to know their revenue, and a full price list per journal they publish. I very much believe that if we looked at what they make in profits, we'll see that they can't justify how much they…
I've done a lot of work on tools that interface with the academic publishing infrastructure. Elsevier not only make a huge profit margin, but they operate at a staggering level of inefficiency. They are haemorrhaging money and producing precisely nothing of value, and still making profit for their investors hand over fist. Quite incredible.
Hmmm...it seems like the space is ready to be disrupted.
How might that look? I mean purely publishing isnt just ideal as it lacks the so-called quality control and prestige of established publications.
What might be a middle ground for disrupting this crappy monopoly on the world's knowledge?
Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've just had a paper accepted last week in a traditional journal (peer-reviewed and paywalled) and I'd share a few things I know and feel about scientific publishing from an anthor's perspective. The publisher provide a valuable service to authors. Their online submission protal was a joy to use and their staff very friendly and responsive. Once a panel has decided that my submission was at least fit for further con…
Oh, so if doctors weren't to pirate they wouldn't remain abreast? That sounds like yet another disservice from the publishing industry. They are indirectly decreasing people's health. Fantastic.
Many years ago hospital systems employed librarians who acquired articles for medical staff. Costs associated with maintaining a library were at least partially offset by fees physicians paid to be "on staff" at a hospital (or group of them). BTW those fees were typically on the order of several hundred dollars/year.
Of course, among small-medium size hospital systems the libraries are long gone. Some of the largest or those affiliated with universities may still have access in some form. It's an ironic development that so much more research is going on, yet less available to practitioners on the front lines.
Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, publishers historically did that. And they printed journals and books, and reprints. But prices were modestly above cost, back in the day. As recently as the 80s. Now, expenses are much lower, and it's all about profiteering.
Is there a source for that? I believe you, I'm just interested in the degree!
I based my comment on memory.
As I recall, reprints cost on the order of $0.50 each in the early 80s. Based on http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ that's about $1.20 in present dollars. That's a lot less than $30.
Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand academia (genuinely): Couldn't the researchers simply publish their own papers? Make torrents etc? Or are they prevented from doing that somehow?
Your career is based on how "good" the journals are that you publish in. If I publish a paper in Nature, Nature Genetics, Science, etc. then I can hand-pick my next position. The more glam-journals I publish in, the better my chances for tenure.
Can you cross-publish / self-publish as well?
Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone
#97Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone
#98While pirating music or movies, one may try justify ones actions, but deep down it feels wrong. This doesn't even feel wrong. These parasites had it coming.
I don't feel wrong pirating music or movies (especially considering it's legal in my country). I think trying to apply laws of limited amounts of goods (physical objects) to unlimited amount of goods (digital files) is silly.
Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your career is based on how "good" the journals are that you publish in. If I publish a paper in Nature, Nature Genetics, Science, etc. then I can hand-pick my next position. The more glam-journals I publish in, the better my chances for tenure.
Can you cross-publish / self-publish as well?
In practice, people often just put a "draft" of the paper on their personal website without telling their publisher.
Papers in fancy journals are more prestigious, but the papers that get cited the most are the ones with full text freely available on the Web. So, when they can, scientists choose both.
(The better way to do this is to support a publisher that's both high-quality and open-access and submit to their journal.)
Re: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've done a lot of work on tools that interface with the academic publishing infrastructure. Elsevier not only make a huge profit margin, but they operate at a staggering level of inefficiency. They are haemorrhaging money and producing precisely nothing of value, and still making profit for their investors hand over fist. Quite incredible.
Hmmm...it seems like the space is ready to be disrupted. How might that look? I mean purely publishing isnt just ideal as it lacks the so-called quality control and prestige of established publications. What might be a middle ground for disrupting this crappy monopoly on the world's knowledge?
Academics in some fields have been starting independent open-access journals, sometimes with the explicit goal of replacing Elsevier journals in particular.
https://gowers.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/the-elsevier-boycott...