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Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
Despite two lost legal battles in the US, domain name seizures, and millions of dollars in damage claims, Sci-Hub continues to offer unauthorized access to academic papers. The site's founder says that she would rather operate legally, but copyright gets in the way. Sci-Hub is not the problem she argues, it's a solution, something many academics appear to agree with.
Sci-Hub has often been referred to as "The Pirate Bay of Science," but that description really sells the site short.
While both sites are helping the public to access copyrighted content without permission, Sci-Hub has also become a crucial tool that arguably helps the progress of science.
The site allows researchers to bypass expensive paywalls so they can read articles written by their fellow colleagues. The information in these 'pirated' articles is then used to provide the foundation for future research.
What the site does is illegal, according to the law, but Sci-Hub is praised by thousands of researchers and academics around the world. In particular, those who don't have direct access to the expensive journals but aspire to excel in their academic field.
Source: https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-proves-that-piracy-can-be-dangerously-useful-180804/
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:13PM (2 children)
> The actual researchers get little or nothing from the Journal.
Exposure. Which is critical to future grants.
The peer review process is supposed to guarantee the reader that they are not investing their limited time reading bollocks.
Anybody can self-publish, but it's akin to selling your DangDongSki car to rich people who want the proven reliability of a Lexus.
Does it suck ? Yes.
Can you dismiss it as a giant waste ? Until some big credible organization creates a reliable peer-reviewed database of content, the incumbents are what's trusted, and therefore what will keep being used.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday August 15 2018, @02:31PM (1 child)
Guy I work with had a Lexus. Sold it after a year because it kept breaking down and cost an arm and a leg each time. He got a Nissan instead.
Which would seem to be missing the point...except I don't think it is really, because:
This part doesn't seem to be doing its job properly, as a lot of these "reviewed" studies are still junk:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/02/04/011259 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/12/29/046254 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/08/29/1226237 [soylentnews.org]
Yeah, that "trust" is part of the problem, not the solution. It is one of the misguided beliefs that is preventing a better system from replacing these journals.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday August 15 2018, @04:57PM
You notice that I did put all the weasel words to show that what the system is supposed to be, knowing well that it's barely passable in practice.