The Guardian - Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science? Nov 2019

Sly Saint · Nov 20, 2019

Interesting read.

The idea that scientific research should be freely available for anyone to use is a sharp departure, even a threat, to the current system – which relies on publishers’ ability to restrict access to the scientific literature in order to maintain its immense profitability. In recent years, the most radical opposition to the status quo has coalesced around a controversial website called Sci-Hub – a sort of Napster for science that allows anyone to download scientific papers for free. Its creator, Alexandra Elbakyan, a Kazhakstani, is in hiding, facing charges of hacking and copyright infringement in the US. Elsevier recently obtained a $15m injunction (the maximum allowable amount) against her.

Elbakyan is an unabashed utopian. “Science should belong to scientists and not the publishers,” she told me in an email. In a letter to the court, she cited Article 27 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, asserting the right “to share in scientific advancement and its benefits”.

Whatever the fate of Sci-Hub, it seems that frustration with the current system is growing. But history shows that betting against science publishers is a risky move.
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don't know if there is any way for people to show support to the creator of sci-hub?

https://www.theguardian.com/science...c-publishing-bad-for-science?CMP=share_btn_tw

rvallee · Nov 20, 2019

The incompetence of every UK medical journal in promoting harmful BPS pseudoscience certainly suggests so.

Aaron Swartz literally died for this. As many in the ME community do, just on the other side of things. The current model is even more broken considering how the ME saboteurs seem to all have financial interests in promoting their ideology and how medical journals enable this tragedy. And considering how Richard Horton is still in his job, still doing the same failure he did previously and celebrated for it.

Radical transparency is inevitable. Break everything, the current system is completely broken anyway, especially in medicine. Break it all, nothing of value will be lost.

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The Guardian - Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science? Nov 2019

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The Guardian - Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science? Nov 2019

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rvallee Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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