[IRTalk] Why Sci-Hub Will Win — Medium

[Allison Fullard]

Thanks Hilton. This post is probably the sanest and most reasonable view that I've read.  Heathers concedes that he operates in an institution with good access but finds the rigmarole of accessing full texts via libraries to be exasperating.  It's the first time I realise that it's the scale of the task multiplied by hundreds that is so off-putting.  While students may need a dozen references, for researchers its hundreds, and it's never going to stop.  So Sci-Hub is serving researchers who do have access but find the piracy route so much more painless.

Of course, for us in resource-constrained environments, the rigmarole of achieving access is even more frustrating - and our access is currently diminishing as we make further cuts.

Heathers' endgame scenario towards the end of the blog imagines a cooperative academic network in which everyone scrambles to set up alternatives that look nothing like the current setup for publishing.  For me, it comes across as a little too glib - the rivalry within research fields could prevent such a harmonious outcome.  

but, I'm curious to see what see how this turns out - hope libraries will be central part of the next generation of dissemination!

Allison




>>> Hilton Gibson <hilton.gibson at gmail.com> 2016/05/26 10:06 AM >>>

Basically, massive academic publishers need to change or die, because a system for instantly disseminating research that’s built out of driftwood and thumbtacks has sprung up, and the big news is not that it’s free, it’s that it’s better.

https://medium.com/@jamesheathers/why-sci-hub-will-win-595b53aae9fa
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