3 ms·

Journal pricing DOES NOT MAKE SENSE to third world countries. That is why scihub is a gift. Last week I came across some random weird article that had a jounrl

Journal pricing DOES NOT MAKE SENSE to third world countries. That is why scihub is a gift. Last week I came across some random weird article that had a jounrla doi. $40 I was told. Fine but in India, minimum wage is ₹500 and $40 is ₹3360 which is like 7 days of minimum wage for a single article. Absurd. We have "universities" paying through the nose for a "subscription" but as a commoner who is not an academic and would like access to 'something', this is bad. And the argument of "poor authors" doest even come up in this discussion so I am all for violating the "intellectual property of publishers", regardless of that making me a criminal or not. Sue my pauper ass. Scihub is magic. Doi paste, boom. Read.

bombcar 4y ago
The “poor authors” is even funnier because almost any science/journal author will send you everything they ever wrote if you show even a tiny modicum of interest. Seriously. I’ve come across things and sent an email as a complete rando and got back way more than I was expecting, including unpublished background details.
dartharva 4y ago
Completely agree with your assessment, but "minimum wage" doesn't mean the same thing in India as it does in the West - minimum-wage earners are not typically students here.
- 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
  minimum wage is just an example. you pay $40 for what? 5 hours of minimum wage work time while in india that is 7 days? cost of "admission", that sort of thing. this is just a reference point. Sure, any student who wants to do research "probably" already has access to "some" journals through their universities who pay through the nose for "institutional subscription", again, money that these third world institutions would rather use for actual work, as opposed to paying for elsevier. If instead of paying for a subscription, the university funds the research of a poor student? would that make more sense?
  - dartharva 4y ago
    Yeah, like I said I completely agree. In fact it's not even convenient to wade through half a dozen publisher portals trying to find what you're looking for - my high-tier college had a subscription to all those journals but I still found myself using Sci-hub more often than not because of its sheer ease-of-use.

bombcar 4y ago

The “poor authors” is even funnier because almost any science/journal author will send you everything they ever wrote if you show even a tiny modicum of interest. Seriously. I’ve come across things and sent an email as a complete rando and got back way more than I was expecting, including unpublished background details.

dartharva 4y ago

Completely agree with your assessment, but "minimum wage" doesn't mean the same thing in India as it does in the West - minimum-wage earners are not typically students here.

2Gkashmiri 4y ago
minimum wage is just an example. you pay $40 for what? 5 hours of minimum wage work time while in india that is 7 days? cost of "admission", that sort of thing. this is just a reference point. Sure, any student who wants to do research "probably" already has access to "some" journals through their universities who pay through the nose for "institutional subscription", again, money that these third world institutions would rather use for actual work, as opposed to paying for elsevier. If instead of paying for a subscription, the university funds the research of a poor student? would that make more sense?
- dartharva 4y ago
  Yeah, like I said I completely agree. In fact it's not even convenient to wade through half a dozen publisher portals trying to find what you're looking for - my high-tier college had a subscription to all those journals but I still found myself using Sci-hub more often than not because of its sheer ease-of-use.