4 ms·

This is why making journals publicly accessible isn't a technical problem as much as a legal or policy one. Otherwise, this will just turn into a cat and mouse

This is why making journals publicly accessible isn't a technical problem as much as a legal or policy one. Otherwise, this will just turn into a cat and mouse game with enough legal ramifications for those who use it.

modzu 9y ago
dont universities pay for subscriptions, so most academics can already access these materials via their own library? where does the number 4 million come from? i figured sites like this are broadening access to scientific literature to people outside the institution -- who otherwise would not be subscribing anyway (maybe im wrong?)
- moftz 9y ago
  No university will subscribe to everything so there are plenty of academics that may require journal articles that they either aren't subscribed to or can't get on loan form another university. Unless the school has given you a budget to pay the $35+ per article, then using a site like sci-hub is the only choice.
  - codedokode 9y ago
    But scientist and professor job is well paid in America, 35 dollars should not be a problem, compared to the costs a student pays to the university each year (hundred thousand dollars), right?
    - AlotOfReading 9y ago
      Academics can afford individual papers, but they read dozens to hundreds of papers a month. Add in the fact that many of the papers needed are simply to even check if they're relevant and it's incredibly hard to justify. Also, American unis don't charge $100k/yr. Half that is enough for an ivy.
    - madhadron 9y ago
      A few, extremely prestigious professors at a big university will make more than $100k/year. The vast majority make less, often in the range of half that.
- matt4077 9y ago
  These subscription are a common point of friction at universities. The administration obviously wants to minimise spending, while the research staff will forcefully insist that they absolutely must have access to The Kazakh Journal of the History of Native Antarctic Languages Monthly. And they're probably right! If, however there's this shiny new repository where everyone can get the articles for free, that may encourage _some_ researchers to stay home instead of attending that dreadful budget meeting. Or at least not be quite as forceful in their demands. So I'd say this works pretty much the same as it does for other digital content, only that publishers will not see their revenue decrease gradually, but rather with a certain delay, but drastically. The subscription contracts usually covering multiple years probably adds to that, as well. Of course the large journals will see the effects last. It really makes for an awkward conversation when that Elsevier guy asks "So at the Max Planck society, with 30,000 Phds, nobody reads Nature?".
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Beyond the other points in responses to your comments, keep also in mind that the publishers bundle journals in subscriptions, and they have every incentive to bundle them in most annoying ways, in order to maximize the amount of subscriptions academic institutions need to buy.

modzu 9y ago

dont universities pay for subscriptions, so most academics can already access these materials via their own library? where does the number 4 million come from? i figured sites like this are broadening access to scientific literature to people outside the institution -- who otherwise would not be subscribing anyway (maybe im wrong?)

moftz 9y ago
No university will subscribe to everything so there are plenty of academics that may require journal articles that they either aren't subscribed to or can't get on loan form another university. Unless the school has given you a budget to pay the $35+ per article, then using a site like sci-hub is the only choice.
- codedokode 9y ago
  But scientist and professor job is well paid in America, 35 dollars should not be a problem, compared to the costs a student pays to the university each year (hundred thousand dollars), right?
  - AlotOfReading 9y ago
    Academics can afford individual papers, but they read dozens to hundreds of papers a month. Add in the fact that many of the papers needed are simply to even check if they're relevant and it's incredibly hard to justify. Also, American unis don't charge $100k/yr. Half that is enough for an ivy.
  - madhadron 9y ago
    A few, extremely prestigious professors at a big university will make more than $100k/year. The vast majority make less, often in the range of half that.
matt4077 9y ago
These subscription are a common point of friction at universities. The administration obviously wants to minimise spending, while the research staff will forcefully insist that they absolutely must have access to The Kazakh Journal of the History of Native Antarctic Languages Monthly. And they're probably right! If, however there's this shiny new repository where everyone can get the articles for free, that may encourage _some_ researchers to stay home instead of attending that dreadful budget meeting. Or at least not be quite as forceful in their demands. So I'd say this works pretty much the same as it does for other digital content, only that publishers will not see their revenue decrease gradually, but rather with a certain delay, but drastically. The subscription contracts usually covering multiple years probably adds to that, as well. Of course the large journals will see the effects last. It really makes for an awkward conversation when that Elsevier guy asks "So at the Max Planck society, with 30,000 Phds, nobody reads Nature?".
TeMPOraL 9y ago
Beyond the other points in responses to your comments, keep also in mind that the publishers bundle journals in subscriptions, and they have every incentive to bundle them in most annoying ways, in order to maximize the amount of subscriptions academic institutions need to buy.