From: Ivy Anderson <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, 2 May 2016 02:01:15 +0000 Toby, that's a very perceptive question. I shared the University of California's download stats with John Bohannon but he didn't use that information. In 2014, our total ejournal download figure (html+pdf) was 33 million. We think those numbers are a little skewed because some publishers take users directly to an html version, and if the user then selects a pdf, a separate download is counted. We've done some research on this but haven't been able to devise a consistent normalization formula. But still, 30M downloads at just the University of California, large as we are (250k students and faculty), makes 47M SciHub downloads look like not such a big deal. I suspect it's practically a rounding error in the grand scheme of things. UC is evidently not a big user of SciHub. Still, my takeaway is that we'd all be better served by open access if we can figure out the business models - this is clearly what people want. Ivy Ivy Anderson California Digital Library > On May 1, 2016, at 5:33 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > From: <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 09:30:25 +0000 > > This is interesting, but the numbers need to be put into context > (always a good idea with numbers - to put them in context). I have no > idea, for example, how many articles are being downloaded from Science > Direct, JSTOR, or other platforms and repositories in order to gauge > whether SciHub's 28 million is 'small', 'medium' or 'large'. For what > it's worth, OECD Publishing's downloads last year were 28 million (so > we're running at around 50% of SciHub) but our catalogue is much, much > smaller - we have around 200,000 items on our platform, a far cry from > SciHub's 50 million. Does anyone (STM, perhaps?) have data on journal > article downloads worldwide? > > However, this data does support a conjecture that we have at OECD: the > potential audience is always far larger than one thinks. I recently > had one of our authors say her latest paper would have an audience of > '200' and she swore blind that it wouldn't be any larger. Based on our > past performance with similar papers, I reckon we'll reach twice or > three times that number. This thinking is quite widespread. I was > recently challenged at a conference, at which I had shared data on the > growth in accesses to our content following the introduction of our > freemium publishing model, by someone arguing that OECD content was > somehow different from scholarly content published in journals and was > bound to have a larger audience. I countered by stating that 40% of > OECD populations are now educated to first-degree level as are many in > non-OECD countries, especially in places like Iran, China and India. > Therefore, the potential audience that has the skill and ability to > read a journal article is really very large indeed. The data from > SciHub seems to be proving the point. > > The final anecdote about ease of discovery and access is sobering . . > . If we (publishers and librarians together) can't get this right, > especially at subscribing institutions, then we're failing badly. But, > this brings me back to the first point - the context of this data. > What is the share of SciHub downloads at subscribing institutions? If > it becomes significant, then we are failing, if it isn't, then we're > not. > > Toby Green > Head of Publishing > OECD > > >> On 29 Apr 2016, at 06:19, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> >> From: Gary Price <[log in to unmask]> >> Date: Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 3:11 PM >> >> From a New Article in Science (No Paywall For This Article). >> . >> From Science (NO Paywall): >> http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/whos-downloading-pirated-papers-everyone >> >> "But in increasing numbers, researchers around the world are turning >> to Sci-Hub, which hosts 50 million papers and counting. Over the 6 >> months leading up to March, Sci-Hub served up 28 million documents. >> More than 2.6 million download requests came from Iran, 3.4 million >> from India, and 4.4 million from China. The papers cover every >> scientific topic, from obscure physics experiments published decades >> ago to the latest breakthroughs in biotechnology. The publisher with >> the most requested Sci-Hub articles? It is Elsevier by a long >> shot—Sci-Hub provided half-a-million downloads of Elsevier papers in >> one recent week. >> >> These statistics are based on extensive server log data supplied by >> Alexandra Elbakyan, the neuroscientist who created Sci-Hub in 2011 as >> a 22-year-old graduate student in Kazakhstan. I asked her for the data >> because, in spite of the flurry of polarized opinion pieces, blog >> posts, and tweets about Sci-Hub and what effect it has on research and >> academic publishing, some of the most basic questions remain >> unanswered: Who are Sci-Hub’s users, where are they, and what are they >> reading? >> >> [Clip] >> >> The Sci-Hub data provide the first detailed view of what is becoming >> the world’s de facto open-access research library. Among the >> revelations that may surprise both fans and foes alike: Sci-Hub users >> are not limited to the developing world. Some critics of Sci-Hub have >> complained that many users can access the same papers through their >> libraries but turn to Sci-Hub instead—for convenience rather than >> necessity. The data provide some support for that claim. The United >> States is the fifth largest downloader after Russia, and a quarter of >> the Sci-Hub requests for papers came from the 34 members of the >> Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the wealthiest >> nations with, supposedly, the best journal access. In fact, some of >> the most intense use of Sci-Hub appears to be happening on the >> campuses of U.S. and European universities." >> >> The article includes the following charts/graphs/maps: >> >> Sci-Hub Traffic Over Six Months >> Sci-Hub Traffic, Globally >> Top Five Cities Where Most Requests Come From (U.S.) >> Top 10 Most Downloaded Papers on Sci-Hub >> Most Downloaded Publishers >> >> Full Text >> http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/whos-downloading-pirated-papers-everyone >> >> Coverage in the Washington Post >> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2016/04/28/whos-reading-millions-of-stolen-research-papers-on-the-outlaw-site-sci-hub-now-we-know/ >> >> "[John] Bohannon [author of the Science article] quoted a George >> Washington University student saying it was sometimes difficult to >> access journals his school subscribes to from Google Scholar, a tool >> viewed as the easiest way to surface relevant papers. But if he puts >> the paper’s title into Sci-Hub, he said, “It will just work.” >> >> __gary >> >> >> Gary D. Price, MLIS >> Co-Founder and Editor, Library Journal's infoDOCKET >> Research Director, Global Investigative Journalism Network >> Information Industry Analyst >> Librarian