From: Anthony Watkinson <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 09:49:21 +0100 I am glad to see that Colin is about still. Hi Colin. I am always intrigued by comments like this one (not his): "By looking into how and where Sci-Hub is used it becomes clear that barriers to access to scholarly publications remain a real issue, one that is affecting a diverse group of actors in many different ways. And thanks to a so-far unbroken oligopoly in academic publishing, with a small set of commercial actors dominating the market and setting the terms to access, this is unlikely to change very soon. Thus, issues of legality aside, Sci-Hub remains a strong route to education for researchers from states suffering from international embargoes or economic hardship just as it is for individuals outside academic institutions everywhere else in the world" It fascinates me that the American Chemical Society, a representative body if ever there was one, is included in the heavily weighted phrase "a small group of commercial actors" and it makes me wonder from the start how rational this analysis is. What interests me because my perspective is different is the number of users of SciHub who already have access: if you work by clicking on a DOI as many do what could be easier to reach full text. Certainly easier than using the library you have access to. Anthony -----Original Message----- From: Colin Steele <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2017 23:48:23 +0000 The latest post from the LSE impact blog is worth looking at, especially for the graphics and tables in relation to Sci-Hub downloads from major publishers as these can't easily be copied into the LibLicense-L list. If you want to explore the data on Sci-Hub yourself, have a look at his small web application (still in development), which allows you to browse the data easily. Best Colin ------------------------------------------------------------ A closer look at the Sci-Hub corpus: what is being downloaded and from where? Sci-Hub remains among the most common sites via which readers circumvent article paywalls and access scholarly literature. But where exactly are its download requests coming from? And just what is being downloaded? Bastian Greshake has analysed the full Sci-Hub corpus and its request data, and found that articles are being downloaded from all over the world, more recently published papers are among the most requested, and there is a marked overrepresentation of requested articles from journals publishing on chemistry. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2017/06/12/a-closer-look-at-the-sci-hub-corpus-what-is-being-downloaded-and-from-where/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+feedburner%2FLSEImpactBlog+%28LSE+Impact+Blog%29 By looking into how and where Sci-Hub is used it becomes clear that barriers to access to scholarly publications remain a real issue, one that is affecting a diverse group of actors in many different ways. And thanks to a so-far unbroken oligopoly in academic publishing, with a small set of commercial actors dominating the market and setting the terms to access, this is unlikely to change very soon. Thus, issues of legality aside, Sci-Hub remains a strong route to education for researchers from states suffering from international embargoes or economic hardship just as it is for individuals outside academic institutions everywhere else in the world. This blog post is based on the author’s article, “Looking into Pandora’s Box: The Content of Sci-Hub and its Usage”, published in F1000Research (DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.11366.1). Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Impact Blog, nor of the London School of Economics. Please review our comments policy if you have any concerns on posting a comment below. About the author Bastian Greshake is a biologist-turned-bioinformatician, currently working on his PhD in the Group for Applied Bioinformatics at the University of Frankfurt. Besides his research in fungal genomics he has a strong interest in open science and all things open. In 2011 he co-founded openSNP, an award-winning citizen science project that creates open data by putting personal genetics data into the public domain. In addition he does research into how people get around the barriers that prevent them access to research outputs. He tweets at @gedankenstuecke. --------------------------------------------- Colin Steele Emeritus Fellow ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences The Australian National University Room 3.31, Beryl Rawson Building #13 Acton, ACT, 2601 Australia P: + 61 2 6125 8983 E: [log in to unmask]