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This is not true for most universities around the world. Only wealthy ones in first-world countries. All of my father’s academic colleagues in Mexico use Sci-Hu
by jacobolus 5y ago
This is not true for most universities around the world. Only wealthy ones in first-world countries. All of my father’s academic colleagues in Mexico use Sci-Hub daily, and rely on it for access to literature.
But beyond that, there are paywalled journals which Harvard does not subscribe to. There are journals which the University of California does not subscribe to. (Or pick your favorite university, and there will be some paywalled journals it does not subscribe to.) Almost all are on Sci-Hub.
Moreover, even in the USA/Europe, there are many researchers who are not affiliated with any university, and many laypeople who look up scientific literature from time to time. For instance a great many paywalled papers are directly relevant to working computer programmers, but not worth $35/paper + bureaucratic hassle to evaluate.
- lmm 5y agoAre the people whose work will be disrupted people who the top-tier scientific community care about? As a working programmer I'd like to have access to scientific papers, but realistically no researcher is going to care whether I do. If the pain isn't being felt by top-tier researchers and top-tier universities, I doubt anyone will be able to change it.
- jacobolus 5y ago> no researcher is going to care whether I [read their papers] Researchers absolutely want people to read and use their work! That’s why they do it! Having some practical impact on people making things in industry is super gratifying to the researchers I know, much more than just having the same tiny circle of known collaborators read and cite each-other’s papers in theoretical or small-scale academic prototype work.
- freshhawk 5y agoYes. It includes many members of the top-tier scientific community. For many of them, the reason we get the benefits of these top-tier people is because of sci-hub.
- dmos62 5y agoIt's obscene that scientific literature is walled away from the public.
- pell 5y agoEspecially when the public often paid for said research at least in part.
- raxxorrax 5y agoPreviously publishers did improve the papers and checked them. Those times are long gone and it is questionable what their purpose might be today. IP law has long been abused to stifle development instead of protecting it. In this case it might stifle scientific research.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- PicassoCTs 5y agoThe Journal system is basically academic job protection for wealthier countries, but this factor is never talked about aloud, as it is a) unscientific and anti-enlightenment behavior and b) exposes the hypocrisy that is creating loads of competition for unskilled labor, while crippling the competition for mental labor. So why not call the system what is? The guild of knowledge. I still vividly remember when the eastern-block opened, and all those excellent Russian mathematicians who went into the west, were not recognized when it came to there degrees in europe. "The brightest minds of a generation work here" in the university brochure? Don't make me laugh.
- xtracto 5y agoExactly! I had the opportunity to both work in the academic field in Mexico and study in the UK and the difference of resources is abysmal: Access to Scopus, access to Elsevier and other editorials is something most researchers in Mexico can only dream about.