• sndrtj@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    10 months ago

    A website where you can download paywalled scientific literature. Most scientific literature is paywalled by publishers, and costs a real significant amount to read (like 30-50$ per article if you don’t have a subscription).

    Scihub basically just pirates it. And has been shut down several times. But as most scientific studies are already laid with public money, scihub isn’t that unethical at all.

    • andros_rex@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      10 months ago

      Lots of scientists will just send you their article if you email them. They don’t get the money when you pay to read it - often they pay to submit. Reviewing journal articles is a privilege and doesn’t get you paid. The prestige of a scientific article is from the number of times people have cited it. The only “harm” done is that the publisher doesn’t get to make 100% profit for doing nothing.

      Journal publishing is mostly a way to extract money from universities. Elsevier and its ilk name whatever price they think a research university can afford.