While I was writing about the latest EC idiocy (link tax), I was reminded of Sci-Hub.
Just checking to see if it was still alive, I tried http://sci-hub.io/.
404 by standard DNS service.
If you are having the same problem, Mike Masnick reports in Sci-Hub, The Repository Of ‘Infringing’ Academic Papers Now Available Via Telegram, you can access Sci-Hub via:
- A hidden Tor site
- It’s IP address http://31.184.194.81/
- More recently, via Telegram, @scihubot
I’m not on Telegram, yet, but that may be changing soon. 😉
BTW, while writing this update, I stumbled across: The New Napster: How Sci-Hub is Blowing Up the Academic Publishing Industry by Jason Shen.
From the post:
…
This is obviously piracy. And Elsevier, one of the largest academic journal publishers, is furious. In 2015, the company earned $1.1 billion in profits on $2.9 billion in revenue [2] and Sci-hub directly attacks their primary business model: subscription service it sells to academic organizations who pay to get access to its journal articles. Elsevier filed a lawsuit against Sci-Hub in 2015, claiming Sci-hub is causing irreparable injury to the organization and its publishing partners.But while Elsevier sees Sci-Hub as a major threat, for many scientists and researchers, the site is a gift from the heavens, because they feel unfairly gouged by the pricing of academic publishing. Elsevier is able to boast a lucrative 37% profit margin because of the unusual (and many might call exploitative) business model of academic publishing:
- Scientists and academics submit their research findings to the most prestigious journal they can hope to land in, without getting any pay.
- The journal asks leading experts in that field to review papers for quality (this is called peer-review and these experts usually aren’t paid)
- Finally, the journal turns around and sells access to these articles back to scientists/academics via the organization-wide subscriptions at the academic institution where they work or study
There’s piracy afoot, of that I have no doubt.
Elsevier:
- Relies on research it does not sponsor
- Research results are submitted to it for free
- Research is reviewed for free
- Research is published in journals of value only because of the free contributions to them
- Elsevier makes a 37% profit off of that free content
There is piracy but Jason fails to point to Elsevier as the pirate.
Sci-Hub/Alexandra Elbakyan is re-distributing intellectual property that was stolen by Elsevier from the academic community, for its own gain.
It’s time to bring Elsevier’s reign of terror against the academic community to an end. Support Sci-Hub in any way possible.