A research paper is a special publication written by scientists to be read by other researchers. Papers are primary sources neccessary for research – for example, they contain detailed description of new results and experiments.
At this time the widest possible distribution of research papers, as well as of other scientific or educational sources, is artificially restricted by copyright laws. Such laws effectively slow down the development of science in human society. The Sci-Hub project, running from 5th September 2011, is challenging the status quo. At the moment, Sci-Hub provides access to hundreds of thousands research papers every day, effectively bypassing any paywalls and restrictions.
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It's so good to see that some Russian folks are doing this (why is it always the Russians?)
Here's hoping scholars will have free access to science research for the decades to come.
if sci-hub won't work. go here: http://smarturl.it/pdfRequestApp
OH YEAH BABY, I'M ABOUT TO GET MY LEARN ON!!!
I can speak on behalf of scientists, whom I know a lot of, as well as institutions, of which I've worked for several (private for- and non-profit, and public), and say that no one sees it as a good thing. It's a vestige from a time when papers had to be printed in journals, and journals had to be delivered in hard copy form all over the world. That's expensive. It's no longer expensive, but we still pay. A lot. To read a given paper might cost you $30. To publish it might cost me (or rather, my institution) $1500. So the journals are double dipping, charging me to publish and you or your library to access it. Back when Congress passed the law that all government funded research has to be publicly available, the publishing lobby successfully argued for a one year embargo. In 2015 it's beyond comprehension. But people trust the names that come with journals, so they still have us by the nutsack. I wish I could just jeep a blog of my results, positive or negative, and let the quality be judged, but that's not ever gonna happen.
| I wish I could just jeep a blog of my results, positive or negative, and let the quality be judged, but that's not ever gonna happen. I wish you would. I think that is going to become a completely normal thing, and all we have to do is start and show that it works. We need a permanent web to make it stick though.
Wow, that's unbelievable. It provided an identical pdf of a journal as my university's library database. I wonder how long it'll last; this is an impressive collection of mostly secured papers.
Well, they have been doing it since 2011, so I have to imagine they're be able to do it for a good while longer. Regardless, if SHTF, the technology will still be there, and it will be up to them to pass the baton to someone else. I kinda wish they would open-source their scraper though, but I guess they worry that that'd make it more difficult for them.
I'd like to think that the people who have the power to shut it down, choose not to.
Elsevier has a lawsuit going against them and got their domain seized, but that was just an annoyance.