Should Knowledge Be Free?

Should academic research be behind paywalls? Researchers and peer reviewers earn nothing for their work, and yet academic publishers boast enormous profit margins every year from subscription fees to journals. Especially during a global pandemic, is it right for scientific research to be pay-to-read?
Sci-Hub is an illegal website that offers almost all academic publications for free, created by Alexandra Elbakyan, who I interview in this video. Aaron Swartz, like Alexandra, felt that information should be freely available on the Internet. He ended his own life after being charged with wire fraud, because he illegally downloaded academic articles from JSTOR.
What is the way forward? Pre-prints? Researchgate? Have your say below.
A huge thank you to Alexandra Elbakyan and Rachel Atwood (@racatiwood) for giving up their time so generously on two occasions (due to Zoom failing the first time). We talked for a while longer, and whether you agree with what Alexandra's doing or not, her accomplishments are quite staggering.
Thank you also to translations25 (I don't know her actual name!) on Fiverr who did a great job translating the recording back for the subtitles. If there are any errors in the transcript that's from me editing it down incorrectly. If you want a Russian/English/Ukranian translator for a good price she's here: www.fiverr.com...
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More Medlife Crisis:
www.medlifecris...
/ medcrisis
watchnebula.co...
/ medcrisis
/ medlifecrisis
Current Sci-Hub addresses, but subject to change:
sci-hub.st
sci-hub.se
sci-hub.do
I was inspired to photoshop myself into Solvay by my friend Alex Lathbridge (Twitter @thermoflynamics) to whom I owe a lot. The Shining ending...I have no idea, I get a bit delirious after editing for hours.
References:
A few excellent articles by writers to whom I owe a lot of the basis of this video
Especially this one: Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science? www.theguardia...
Scientific publishing is a rip-off. We fund the research - it should be free | George Monbiot www.theguardia...
These Five Companies Control More Than Half of Academic Publishing www.scienceale...
A really great deep dive into the open access movement and Alexandra’s work as well: Meet the pirate queen making academic papers free online www.theverge.c...

[@MedlifeCrisis]

EDIT: Alexandra asked me to point out that some people are sharing urls in the comments to fake versions of sci-hub which may be dangerous websites or ineffective. Please be careful. Current official urls are sci-hub.st, sci-hub.se, sci-hub.do. I don't need to ask my viewers if they think the current model is wrong, so instead - what do you think is a way forward? Genuinely interested in your thoughts.

[@cyrilio]

I love researchgate. If an article has a price through publisher you can ask the author for a free copy there.

[@123amsterdan456]

All scientific literature should be free for anyone with access to the internet. That is a must

[@RedPillVegan]

_Some_ *Universities need to fail.* No bailout, no vasoline.

[@123amsterdan456]

I thought about a system similar to Git hub, where the papers would be like repos, that could be cloned, commented on and maybe even updated with future references and linked to similar papers. All open to anyone to post, but somehow 'validate' the papers from established research professionals (these should also be open to open review and comments, but have something to differentiate from a engineer that published something on an experiment he did in his backyard). The papers could be graded by reputation, number of citations and links to other papers, and maybe a 'upvote/downvote' system, where you had to pass a automatically generated comprehension test of the paper before grading it (and maybe votes from estabilished peers on the field are 'worth' more)

[@imaner76]

Virally flood as many papers as possible? How many thousands of people can they sue or even pursue at once? Civil uprising mindset removed... It's not an easy one without agreed governance. But who will govern and regulate the worldwide papers. This may be a international meeting of those that can govern to understand how to govern it. So global petitioning of each of the largest decision makers in the current world. Maybe now, given that science is the way forward for global normality, surely an argument for freedom of science is now 🤔

[@sejfzlrrhman]

Scientists in the future: This scientific study is sponsored by *rAiD sHaDoW lEgEnDs*

[@AleksandarIvanov69]

Has been happening for decades, it's just not announced in youtube videos

[@cdav2199]

Before your anaesthesia in an operation.. "Just a quick message from our *sPonSoR* RaID ShAdoW LegEnDS"

[@cactusmann5542]

@@AleksandarIvanov69 Readies gun: Always has been///

[@LowestofheDead]

Unironically this would be an improvement.

[@hellNo116]

climate scientist been sponsored by exxon oil is the raid shadow legends of the scientific community

[@sayakchoudhury9711]

Scihub is godsend, especially if you are from a developing country.

[@ellenorbjornsdottir1166]

Or on disability welfare

[@michaelzlprime]

or just not currently working in academia

[@crazymilan93]

It’s a godsend even if you are from a developed country

[@brendielahooha]

YES

[@elvis_mello]

When I started physics a veteran created a mini-course about how to study and what tools you could use. He showed us scihub and said something among the lines "Three years from now, when you need to read a lot of papers in order to make your thesis, you'll thank me"

[@logandecosse7164]

I wouldn't have been able to publish my bachelor's thesis if it weren't for sci-hub. To hell with anyone who wants to profit off of knowledge in such a way. It's despicable. I hope Alexandra has monunents built of her. She's a literal hero.

[@b.curupira4683]

Thats true!

[@ebonyblack4563]

Absolutely!

[@clf400]

does your university not grant you access to jounals?

[@desibigfoot3874]

The real Robin Hood of our times. One of the real heros.

[@marceloch7891]

@@clf400 mine does, I have access to all Elsevier and NEJM papers, but there are lots of of papers from other magazines and editorials, you cannot have access to all scientific articles in the world, so Sci-hub is really a life saver

[@fefalim13]

Imagine paying 40 dollars for a single paper when in your country this is basically 1/5 of a minimum wage. Thanks Alexandra, you're like one of those underground hero hackers from cyberpunk books

[@realdragon]

40 bucks? That's 9 hours of minimum wage in Poland

[@fefalim13]

@@realdragon my country's currency isn't worth shit

[@rakha8812]

@@realdragon A lot of 3rd world countries' minimum wage is far, far worse.

[@jacobfromtheghetto4845]

Just did the math, 40 bucks equals to 37 hours on minimal wage work in my country, and it's one of the "better" third world countries

[@nguyenhongquang6397]

@@jacobfromtheghetto4845 It's the same over here in Vietnam. The minimum wage is a bit less than a dollar so each paper would cost about a week of minimum wage work.

[@ShyamSharma-gs8tt]

As a conservation biologist from Nepal where universities don't even have subscriptions of journals, Sci-hub is the only thing that's keeping science alive here.

[@tzenophile]

There are good-quality open-access journals, you know

[@lubricustheslippery5028]

@@tzenophile You often need a certain paper for you research.

[@tzenophile]

@@lubricustheslippery5028 And sometimes they are open access. Heard of Plan S? The point is, paper distribution should be totally legit and legal. Scientists themselves should and can make sure of this. There really is no excuse, ever since the Internet.

[@shelekhov]

Let's help educate 3rd world countries they said. :) Hypocrit rats.

[@baijantichapagai2581]

Exactly ..I Agree

[@ken90ny]

Imagine paying $30 for a paper only to find that it's pretty much useless because it lacks the detailed methodologies, lacks good referencing and was so poorly done. Thank goodness for Sci-hub, I was able to avoid paying that.

[@irrrjyk3272]

yeah, imagine 30 usd here is what a fast-food chain employee earns in 30 hours.

[@LantanaLiz]

Had that exact problem with a book I thankfully sourced from the uni library. It was 300 pages of nothing that had no methodology, no research, no nothing, yet it was somehow recommended reading. Free sources of information are a godsend, because some publications simply aren't worth the paper they're printed on nor the grant abused to write them.

[@h00db01i]

30 is pocket change where I'm from, if you earn it in one hour they look down on you. I'm quite positive hard science will never solve this, even if you get your source materials cheaper. there's one redeeming thing tho; for a group as ignorant as humanity we've already come quit far.

[@ken90ny]

@@h00db01i I earn around 30 per day. That 30 is enough for me to buy groceries for 3 days.

[@h00db01i]

@@ken90ny I can also buy groceries for three days with 30, more even if I eat only rice+veg. there is no balance, we (rich countries) are just bleeding you out best we can.

[@anniei5816]

RIP Aaron Swartz. his death should have been a wake-up call for how wrong restricting education + information is, yet when money is involved, seeing casualties has become normal. we live in such a sick world, and people like him and Alexandra were trying to mend it. it's so messed up that they're being punished for it, like isn't it the point of society to strive to make the world a better place? or is that just what we're sold/told so we wouldn't question the corruption that is at the root of everything...

[@ConstructiveMinds100]

Yes we are being brainwashed to be good, obidient and never question things. These include even the students of universities. .... The world is run by criminals and plethora of crooks. Watch interviews, documentaries covering psychopaths, sociopaths or narsisists. Mind boggling

[@ConstructiveMinds100]

This Aaron Swartz apparently committed suicide by hanging. I am not buying this crap.

[@2MinuteHockey]

he didn't end himself he knew too much about powerful people

[@nthmost]

@@2MinuteHockey no, he absolutely killed himself. I knew him in real life. More importantly, I have heard this from literally all of his loved ones. He suffered from very deep depression and despair as the cops threw insane threats at him, including veiled threats to hurt his friends and family. There's no conspiracy here, just a human tragedy.

[@user-tv8qo7mv8g]

I'm gonna write Alexandra's name in my gratitude for my thesis

[@tombrown407]

I wouldn't recommend that, the university might penalise you. Keep it a vague thanks

[@doodoodoodle]

@@tombrown407 Why? If she sourced anything from her website, the college would know anyhow due to her citations right? I haven't been to college because I'm disorganized and broke, so I'm not very informed... Students should have freedom of information (even though this isn't a govt source), screw a college that penalizes its students like that. I don't know the criteria for what you can source in college papers, but that'd be really dumb.

[@maxziegler6650]

@@doodoodoodle how does the uni find out you cited from sci hub ? In the bibliography you just at the doi at the end and the Publisher at the end of your reference

[@aromitamallik]

@@doodoodoodle so this is a bit late. Basically when you cite the paper you just mention the authors and the journals it was published in (with year, page edition, etc). Scihub provides paywalled papers for free. I am guessing the original poster wants to mention Alexandra in their acknowledgement, not the citations. Some universities may penalise them if they know that they used scihub as it is technically illegal. Although from what I know, the professors mostly don't care or use scihub themselves, there are exceptions of course. Personally I actually learned about scihub from a professor and she also taught us exactly how to use it!

[@doodoodoodle]

@@aromitamallik I'm often late as well, another reason college would be difficult for me. I am a master procrastinator >B^) And that makes sense, thanks for your reply! I haven't been to the website myself so I'm a bit out of touch overall lol The closest thing to college was the AP classes I took in highschool, I hated citations, and I honestly don't remember much (they're not that bad but I'm a numskull and rather rant than cite lols ;'^D)

[@naroimsong2878]

I cannot live without Sci-Hub, my deepest respect to Alexandra.

[@Shille84]

✌👏👏👏

[@tiagoguerra9088]

Me too

[@SamThakar]

👍

[@ashishgautam6432]

Me too

[@KatFuser]

Me too!!!

[@__-cd9ug]

i like how basically everyone agrees on this issue except the people in charge alexandra is the chaotic good model we ought to follow

[@Taruby]

He was downloading them, which wasn't illegal. However, what they were trying to pin on him was that he was going to host or share the files, and his girlfriend didn't do him any favours when she was questioned by the authorities. Honestly, when it comes to the law, if someone doesn't like something you do, they'll figure out some angle to get you in trouble, and they got him through his girlfriend.

[@GhostEmblem]

@@Taruby That explains why he was suspiciously hanged its becausse they had nothing on him >:(

[@hedgeclipper418]

imo chaotic good is the best alignment. Lawful good would be fine if the world wasn't so thoroughly populated with lawful evil characters right now. Chaotic good is the best medicine for lawful evil imo.

[@emiloguechoons9030]

@@hedgeclipper418 Nerd :p

[@hedgehog3180]

@@hedgeclipper418 Lawful good doesn't mean obeying the literal laws it means sticking to some internal moral code, that might align with laws but if the laws are unjust it won't, basically you decide to do good because of some internal moral system that requires you to do so. Chaotic good is when you do good not for any particular reason but just because you feel like it, it'll probably bring you into conflict with the law a lot more often but you also aren't gonna be starting a revolution that way. Lawful good characters are the ones who could start a revolution because they have some idea of what the world ought to be like and can convince others to follow it.

[@pertechnetyl]

As a scientist i say: yes, of course! Publishing institutions like Elsevier used to be completely free and... "somehow".... they've managed to exist as they do now. It is an extreme rabble to push scientists into payment for their own work, especially that they use public money to perform research. As such, this money should return to the public exactly in the form of 100% free science.

[@ChadDidNothingWrong]

Oh wow....now that just _feels_ unethical all over. Public money taken and then the data published behind paywalls

[@realdragon]

Short answer: Yes Long answer: Yes of course

[@XxGBNL95xX]

If the money doesn't go to directly to the researchers it should be free. No exceptions.

[@andersledell8643]

Yeah it seems so strange that these seemingly parasitic industries have been allowed to exist. It seems to me that universities could make a switch to becoming their own publishers.

[@INeedAttentionEXE]

The companies that publish the paper's of the scientists won't be around if they can't make money

[@kidkangaroo5213]

and even then it should be donation-based, I mean for ffs, the range of disposable income that people who really want to access this stuff (students or interested laymen to professors, firms and so on) is so severe, it's just not right asking everybody to cough up at the same amount of dosh.

[@XxGBNL95xX]

@@INeedAttentionEXE I mean do you honestly think scientists won’t invest in some kind of publishing system if the money goes to them? There’s always ways around things when money is involved

[@XxGBNL95xX]

@@kidkangaroo5213 definitely so! I forgot about that. There are definitely people out there that will do that and especially if they get results from different types of research.

[@abbofun9022]

That lady deserves a Nobel for her contribution

[@MJ_M]

She's really one of the greatest people ever

[@enterwind97]

More likely to get arrest order. She already got a huge fine and ignoring it.

[@gamingmarcus]

@@enterwind97 Not like Kazakhstan would extradite their own citizens.

[@detgffhjjgg3868]

@@gamingmarcus fine said!👍

[@pjahamed]

yes

[@MajinSayon]

The story about how rich parasites are halting the progress of the whole humanity. Classic.

[@emiloguechoons9030]

Yet if you realise there must be something wrong with how we structure the economy you're called a communist, curious 🤔

[@ConstructiveMinds100]

Indeed. Greedy people hold the progress.

[@poco9964]

"Illegal is not always wrong" if only the masses could understand this too!

[@laurakuhlmann1626]

When I lost my shit: my first article, after we paid for it to be published, was behind a paywall TO THE AUTHORS! My colleagues and I never received an author's copy. Many of my colleagues no longer worked in academia so they couldn't read it! I had to download it and send it to them, which was according to the publisher, illegal. Our own work was behind a paywall, after we paid for it! After we paid for it to be published! How is this legal? How? How? How?

[@minikipp8549]

capitalism that's how

[@channul4887]

@@minikipp8549 "capitalism" that's a strange way to spell "chutzpah", must be SA english?

[@PunishedFelix]

jesus Christ im sorry

[@wayfa13]

@@channul4887 SA English?

[@MiGujack3]

wow you got literally shafted

[@lukerogers9002]

“If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.”

[@Elesario]

Citation needed ;)

[@stevanmiladinovic4007]

@@Elesario Citation not possible, op is now behind a paywall.

[@moneer7139]

This contradicts everything about America's laws today

[@flagmichael]

That is a morally reprehensible argument. Psychopaths feel laws are all unjust, and it is very likely almost all criminals do. "If a law is unjust, a man is right to devote his life to changing it."

[@dontshot12]

​@@PrimeMatt Although I understand where this sentiment is coming from, I still struggle to agree with your solution. Justice, unlike science, is subjective and is should preferably be agreed upon by consensus, not the whims of any certain individual. In my mind, when I do have a say in the making of the laws that govern me, I cannot demand others follow the laws that suite me, while I myself disregard the ones that don't. If a law been enacted after public discourse, and after I, and other like minded individuals, have been given a fair chance to express our concern and to sway the opinion of both the public and lawmakers, yet we ultimately failed, I have no other option but to concede temporary defeat, and obey them, until they are amended or repelled to my satisfaction, through continued struggle. If you truly have no saying in the laws that govern you, like living under an autocratic regime, or being a member of a legally marginalized group, then power to you, no taxes without representation. In my opinion, democracy as a system is not broken, it's just that we, the general public, mostly refuse to use the tools it provides us, leaving only the rich and powerful choose for us without much resistance.

[@Novak2611]

It is highly likely that Elsevier's owner will use medication or a technology developed by researchers who used sci-hub in the process. I mean even people who have access to papers via university subscription use sci-hub when they are off campus or at home.

[@satoshiwasareptiloid3777]

Not only off campus, there was a study done on traffic to sci-hub and they found that there was a significant amount of downloads from large universities with subscriptions to journals. One suggestion (I don't remember if they actually did interviews etc., but it was at least suggested) was that it was much easier for students to always open everything in sci-hub, or that they just got used to do it. Might also help that sci-hub actually has a usable user interface.

[@naufaltriandiroziqi8538]

@@satoshiwasareptiloid3777 yeah, i read some paper mentioned that most people use sci hub not because they have no access, but it's just so easy and time saver, especially if you have the sci hub extension

[@strawberrijam3676]

Probably your university hasn't access to all possible journals, or your faculty atleast.

[@vladys5238]

my uni let's me log in on any device off campus and see papers but still they aren't subscribed to everything always so i use sci-hub sometimes

[@XLightChanX]

@@satoshiwasareptiloid3777 can confirm that i am often just too lazy to check which licenses my university has over multiple different sources and sites when i can just open it all in sci-hub. actually a complaint some professors had is that because of sci-hub we students forget how to do our "actual legal research" via the official way but why invest so much time just to check if the paper is even what you need??

[@nickglazzard2385]

The role of Maxwell in all of this was a revelation to me. I never knew anything about that, and I’ve been necessarily accessing scientific literature for some 40 years now, and paying for it myself in recent decades (although as little as possible at around 30 quid a time). Another thing that gets me is there is no expiry date on charging for articles. I recently wanted the full text of a paper published in 1920 as the abstract contained a very elegant statement of the problem … but I just couldn’t justify buying it to myself, as it was unlikely to add much of real relevance. Things must change …

[@cindyl3297]

if only you knew how deep the rabbit hole goes

[@ArsenGaming]

Are the articles not on sci-hub? If they are, I don't understand why you'd pay for them.

[@austinl9943]

The blocked spread of information isn't just tragic, it's literally slowing the progress of civilization.

[@sdjhgfkshfswdfhskljh3360]

That's why decentralized technologies should be researched. It is hard to block something if it is randomly spreaded among thousands of computers. But, sadly, such techologies have way lower popularity and quality than centralized ones. For example, try to search for decentralized KZbin alternative. Lots of results will be scam, other will be slow and glitchy. But it is of course possible to make them great. Just no one cares. Because thinking is a hard thing.

[@rodh1404]

One can say that's largely also true of copyrights and patents. I think the basic idea of copyrights and patents is good, but the length of time they apply for and the way patents in particular are used as a way to stifle competition and innovation is terrible. That's not a new problem either - the Wright Brothers patent wars stifled the early aviation industry and could have had disastrous long term consequences if the US Government hadn't stepped in to (mostly) resolve the issue due to WW I.

[@FarmersAreCool]

@@sdjhgfkshfswdfhskljh3360 The bible.

[@dru4670]

@@sdjhgfkshfswdfhskljh3360 that's where starlink comes in .

[@sdjhgfkshfswdfhskljh3360]

​@@dru4670 yes, it will help a lot. But server with data in most cases will be still located in one physical place, which is a vulnerability.

[@WhatIveLearned]

Excellent video. I just saw on twitter that a Paleoanthropologist has to pay $4200 to Wiley to make *his own paper* free to the public.

[@carlasouza5306]

@Flamebuster32 no. There are something call impact factor. It measures the importance of tht journal as a whole. The higher the number, higher the prestige, the bragging rights, and make you reasume cute for future project fundings. So, that is a mafia....

[@scroopynooperz9051]

"Privatise the gains, socialize the losses" Predatory Capitalism 101 😂 These organisations have successfully maneuvered to offload the expense of actual research to the public, but monetize the output of that research for themselves. They can do that because these organizations control public policy by buying off bumblefcuk politicians to control said policy. Any society with a decent backbone of critical thinking would know this a racket and fix it accordingly, yet here we are

[@damdon6946]

Some are worse, Lancet global health asks $5000

[@paulj6805]

Oh shit it's Joseph. You are doing god's work, keep it up!

[@LeanAndMean44]

@@paulj6805 how blasphemous.

[@tobiasheal]

Watching this video now after getting my first paper back from peer review, the dichotomy between "seems fine" and "this is the worst paper I've ever read" hits close to home

[@oasntet]

Long term, having a single person legally responsible for the open access repository is doomed. Alexandra is a hero, no question, but as recent events have shown, it's time to move to a decentralized system where there are thousands of mirrors and hundreds of entry points, so publishers have nothing useful to attack.

[@Roll587]

Researcher here. I had a paper published recently, which the team paid to make open access forever. The cost was astronomical! The science journal system is totally broken. Edit: While I appreciate preprints, they can cause problems because they are not peer reviewed (although I know peer review is also riddled with problems). Edit edit: Totally agree that 'publish or perish' must die.

[@markv559]

In 2013 PloS paid $830,216 to their CEOs (they had two), $304K to the CFO ...

[@alexandruianosi8469]

Open access is basically a scam; how does it come that Sci-hub can mantain milions of papers on their servers only with donation money while fighting the censorship, yet "Esteemed Journals" has to charge 1500-3000 USD per PAPER? [A day or so later edit]: I see that some commentators were confused by me calling "Open Access" a scam. My bad, so, by the power bestowed upon me by the mighty "Edit" button, please allow me to clarify: Open Access in academia often simply mean that the author pay a very large sum, otherwise their article goes behind a paywall. This system in promoted by the same sharks our beloved doctor was talking of in this video.

[@Daniel-yy3ty]

@@alexandruianosi8469 well, she's not "fighting the censorship", she's ignoring it XD

[@alexandruianosi8469]

@@Daniel-yy3ty By censorship I meant the fact that every now and then Sci-hub has to move their domain name to obscure TLDs.

[@Daniel-yy3ty]

@@alexandruianosi8469 oh, that... Fair enough

[@brodskipod]

This is so high quality it should be behind a paywall. But really, contents like these are the reason I go to youtube, I hope the algorithms are in your favor.

[@LKRaider]

Praise be the Algorithm for recommending this to me

[@Hexanitrobenzene]

"The Algorithm" prefers controversial and/or anger provoking matter. Source: computer scientist Jaron Lanier. This sure falls into this category, so this time it works in our favour.

[@soffianismail]

The waving girl is a lifesaver. Ma'am, you have no idea how i appreciate your work

[@impatientgodot728]

Putting knowledge behind huge paywalls is so detrimental for the advancement of science and societies, specially since it hurts most those who live in developing countries that cannot afford to put the research out or have access to new information. Fantastic video!

[@Nadia1989]

One of my teachers said once: "the pdf will ACCIDENTALLY appear on the Drive folder, DO NOT download it, it has everything you need for this course, I repeat DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT".

[@aysepersona4194]

We had the same. Our professor 'accidentally' sent us his book PDF, which the publishers had the rights to but charged ridiculous prices. He said DO NOT DOWNLOAD it, I didn't send it ;)))))))

[@derrilazkia1002]

If the author *wants* you to *pirate* their book, maybe the publisher kinda *deserve* it

[@fernandoandutta]

@@aysepersona4194 Please notify people to keep updating the URLs into en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis! Sci-Hub, Library_Genesis and others need to migrate between Generic top-level domains from time to time (.st .se .tw and others). #WikiLetters (Finally into wikidata www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q98053916 ) supports the quality-checking of science, and WL aims to bring2everyone@everywhere the virtual-gears between the pages mentioned above of wikipedia and sources of science. If you have suggestions for improvement, or if you wish to make a nice demonstration of how WikiLetters works via youtube or vimeo, we very much appreciate. WL aims for #RealOpencience without bribing the bureaucracy of the system. Thank you very much!

[@yt-sh]

I like your teacher

[@astropgn]

My professor did something similar hehe. She said: "I can have the book because they gave me the pdf to teach. And it is in my pendrive, which is on this computer on my desk... Oh my, I had an instant urge to drink coffee, I will be back in 10 minutes."

[@AndreeaBS99]

Alexandra is going to heaven cause she has made my whole student life easier. I certainly would not be able to pay 100 to 200$ in order to get my sources for ONE research paper or essay and my university could not care less. YES, knowledge should be free, especially for the people inside a field of science...

[@timothywilliams8530]

Clearly she should rename the website to the library of Alexandra

[@anonimushbosh]

@andreea Are you saying that universities pay for access but don’t share it with their own students?

[@GreenLarsen]

@@anonimushbosh Generally it is to costly to pay for all the papers, so uni's only have some and if you study something abit out of the norm you are f'ed :/

[@beskamir5977]

@Filip Nikolic Hopefully not!

[@beskamir5977]

@@timothywilliams8530 That'd be amazing! I'd be down with naming it after her.

[@peterd-k853]

holy shit that's literally the smoothest sponsorship i've ever seen. bravo.

[@Dr.GeoDave]

You nailed this one! As a PhD geologist, but retired from industry I no longer have easy (or maybe any) access to scientific publications. It’s especially annoying because research is often funded at least in part by public money (some tiny portion of my taxes).

[@Archonch]

"Nothing is happening because I have been completely ignoring this issue for the time being. " spoken like a true scientist

[@apuapustaja1]

just to give my own opinion, academic journals are extremely expensive for third world nations. One could argue about the morality in western nations with decent wages but for people living anywhere else the subscriptions could range from weekly to monthly expenses for a student at least (and that's not even factoring in what is not available on a certain journal website)

[@bryanmanuelsalguero4729]

I live in El Salvador (latin america)and here our own teachers promote scihub because it is impossible to study and reference articles without it

[@micaelgarcia1576]

@@bryanmanuelsalguero4729 And my programming professors all demonize non-OpenSource massively employed software!

[@mozismobile]

Even 20 years ago I could have spent my entire research budget on a couple of journal subscriptions. These days if your institution doesn't have the journal you want in their "package" it's often completely impossible to get it at all. One subscription, to some random researchers... they're not interested in such piffling details.

[@fernandoandutta]

Please notify people to keep updating the URLs into en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis! Sci-Hub, Library_Genesis and others need to migrate between Generic top-level domains from time to time (.st .se .tw and others). #WikiLetters (Finally into wikidata www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q98053916) supports the quality-checking of science, and WL aims to bring2everyone@everywhere the virtual-gears between the pages mentioned above of wikipedia and sources of science. If you have suggestions for improvement, or if you wish to make a nice demonstration of how WikiLetters works via youtube or vimeo, we very much appreciate. WL aims for #RealOpencience without bribing the bureaucracy of the system. Thank you very much!

[@adityapathak5761]

Amen. It's a fucking month's salary in India sometimes, don't know what I could've done without Scihub (scraping through hundreds of seedy torrent sites doesn't sound very appealing)

[@Drunkieman]

During my BA, I was adamant on pirating everything I could exactly because researchers and even our most graduate professors weren't paid a dime for their work. The only person I know profited something from publishing articles was the Chairman of the University Publishing House lol

[@eduardog.5236]

I took a year of psychology and got to help my professor in one of those publish or perish situations. Seeing first-handfirsthand what his life was like, and how awfully stressed out he was, disencouraged me from following that path. I really, really hope this can change for the better. I hope its not like in old Greece where only the richest could have time (or resources) to think.

[@crusaderACR]

Well I think there's something we can borrow from the old Greeks here. They justified the existence of scientists and philosophers and such as a necessary "leisure class" Maybe we should see scientists that way today. Competent people that should be left 100% to their own devices. As long as they prove they're actually active and have the skills, they should be left alone. Go home early to think? Let them. Take 10 years for one specific study? Sure. If we change our expectations from scientists having to be actively publishing, into them having to be at leisure, living out and acting on their curiosity, it will all be better. Good scientists are obsessed with knowledge, they will never be inactive, even if they look like they are. That's what I think right now.

[@crusaderACR]

I believe my comment has been deleted. I was suggesting that perhaps the way to start solving the problem is to borrow something from these old Greeks that I think they got right. They justified the existence of scientists and philosophers as a necessary "leisure class". It was expected that they would look as if they aren't doing much (especially in a world where the norm was to work in manual labor), but that once in a while they'll come out with amazing thoughts and books. Perhaps we shouldn't expect scientists to publish several times a year. Perhaps we should let them be. If they go home early to think, let them. If they think some study is going nowhere, let them drop it. In this view, you'd give grants to scientists not due to a specific idea or the perceived impact of a specific grant proposal, but due to their reputation as being prolific and capable. The way a Greek King would support science is by looking for the best ones, giving them a load of cash, a laboratory, a blank check on materials, give their "disciples" some more, and leave them alone for the next decade. In return, they'll offer you (the King) advice by their own initiative, and perhaps some knowledge that'll prove useful to the nation. The career of a scientist here then would be to pair themselves early on with one such reputable scientist and get a name of their own. After recognition from peers as a good reviewer, good thinker or good researcher, these scientists shall get their own personal funding. And once they get it, *you do not meddle.* Publish or perish is the industrial revolution intruding in science. We have to go back for now and rethink this. Science was NEVER expected to give real results. Science is NOT Technology, and it should never be seen like that, and the world has been all the worse these last decades since we decided to mix them. Technology is in truth closer to carpentry than it is to science. It takes from knowledge of how things are, and does something practical with it. Science is about the search of truths regarding the Universe, it's pie-in-the-sky by nature, it is not meant to be grounded in practicality, but its discoveries shall nourish every other lower field, including technology and carpentry. A pragmatic scientist is an awful scientist, and likely not worthy of the name at all. Yet today, if a scientist ought to survive at all, he has to be pragmatic. The 21st century is technocratic, and science is suffering the most for it.

[@mahtabmirhoseinian9264]

I'm a biotechnology student in Iran and bc of sanctions we can't even pay as long as the publisher is abroad! My deepest gratitude to Alexandra and sci-hub!also every time her GIF pops up I wave too😂😂

[@starboycstreet6230]

You can use a VPN and use a foreign server

[@carolinamomo]

Hahahaha, I wave as well!

[@swamysriman7147]

@@starboycstreet6230 No bro....the only way is to launder money to publishers😂. VPN can't help

[@juliocanche7822]

@@starboycstreet6230 wouldn't that be illegal if he's caught?

[@willywonka1962]

@@juliocanche7822 Oh no! A university student read a study without paying... the world has come to an end.

[@PowerhouseCell]

*Yes it should be free. ALL knowledge deserves to be free. Yes, scientists and educators need funding, but it's not like journals nowadays are paying them anyway*

[@fUtal1mistake]

What if one holds some knowledge they don't want to share because of personal or other reasons? People will always try to hide some knowledge from others - be it ability to make fire that you wanna spread amongst your tribe and don't let your rival tribe get their hands on, or knowledge and intricacies of producing nuclear weapons. And people will always hate each other, as it's in nature and required for progress. If you can come up with a society with no hatred in any form - you can enjoy free information for everyone. Though I completely agree that it's annoying to have paywalls everywhere, but seems that it's just how it works at this period of time. Or one of the major domains at least

[@noeloumard9106]

@@fUtal1mistake Why shift the goalpoast? "All knowledge should be free" refers to the price of science and any other knowledge that is already meant to be published by the author. No one talked about every information (note: difference between information and knowledge) being available for everyone. Of course PRIVACY should exist, that is not a question anyone has asked. But if I WANT to SHARE something that I've worked on, that should be possible without either half the world not being able to afford it or me having to take the expenses. You're right that it is how it works right now, because capitalism has made it a crucial part of itself that it's logic and laws spread into every part of society. But in what way does that mean you cannot change it? If no one tries, it will just be like this forever

[@muche6321]

@@fUtal1mistake Sure hating your rival tribe and not telling them about your fire making skills is beneficial for you in the short term. Until another tribe arrives and allies with your rivals against you and wipes you out.

[@ronwesilen4536]

@@fUtal1mistake wtf re you talking about? Do you really think that paying 40 dolars for an important article will stop some bad people from reading it? Thats not the point..

[@dragonsword7370]

another point. If the government with my small percentage of taxes funds the research. That research Should be open to perusal by everyone. Selling it to some group and They make you pay again to read it is Foul man. Just Foul.

[@unnamedlastname511]

I do support Scihub. I am willing to deliver my own research for free to those who really want to study my research. I am willing to show the weakness of my studies to the future researchers. The only thing I sincerely ask from them is to use my studies and make a better research paper than mine and keep promoting the knowledge of Science.

[@ThyCorylus]

The same thing applies to scholarly research in archaeology. I've been trying to research a particular subject on early medieval Britain. There are some excellent published works, but when you need to read 30 of them at 30 quid a time....

[@pahaihminen1]

Sci-hub is basically the reason why I even finished my thesis

[@nerdysam4729]

I owe my post grad to scihub, it's a saviour, won runner-up in best paper and topped exam due to it . We would be lost without it. I feel Alexandra elbakyan should be awarded noble prize for science. I don't feel any other person has brought greater impact in science for everyone than her.

[@ChiragN24]

This is so true! I think Elsevier should be the company getting sued by the public.

[@milu3779]

noble prize :)

[@Gaga682]

@@ChiragN24 All publishing companies should be sued and taken away the right to sell other people works.

[@Investigativebean]

Yes! Unless the sole purpose of publishing studies, or articles is peer review, then what is the point? We laypeople require the research most in many cases. If real studies were easily accessible, then our internet would be less rife with fraudulent pay per publish articles instead.

[@koriuk5032]

"The way of the sword doesn't belong to any one nation. Knowledge of the arts belongs to us all." - Master Piandao

[@fujihita2500]

When I was at the uni, we had a seminar in scientific writing. When we asked if we could use Wikipedia as a source. The professor rejected the idea, saying that Wikipedia's open-edit model makes its articles untrustworthy. To illustrate the point, he went to a random article and tried to edit it. The edit got reversed by an anti-vandal bot before he could even Ctrl+F5 the browser.

[@axelpatrickb.pingol3228]

In a way he is correct, just not for the reasons he believed in...

[@tonikansanoja1202]

Wikipedia shouldn’t be used as a source

[@fujihita2500]

@@tonikansanoja1202 Let's be clear here, Wikipedia is not a reliable source (as aptly stated in a wiki article of the same name), but going out of the way to vandalize Wikipedia to prove this point should always be frowned upon. The saboteurs don't get to judge the wholeness of the things they broke.

[@alelekitaponga]

@@tonikansanoja1202 But it's a good starting point and you should check the sources for the sections you're interested in.

[@Tennouseijin]

I once discussed with my professor why Wikipedia isn't a good source, and we came to the following conclusions: 1. When quoting wikipedia, you should always quote a specific version of the page, not just date, but just go into edit history and quote the url of the last edit. 2. You should credit all the editors who edited the page as authors of the quoted source. 3. And here comes the main issue with quoting wikipedia - you can't verify the credentials of the authors. Unless they use a cryptographic signature or something, there's no way of linking the editor account with a real person. While on one hand it means you can't check if they're a known expert in the field, or just some hobbyist, or even someone with no credentials at all, the worst part is that they risk (almost) nothing by publishing untrue information. Whereas if an author is known, they risk their reputation, possibly their job, or may even face legal action, if they publish BS, a wikipedia editor risks at best losing privileges if they had any special rights granted e.g. for being a long time editor.

[@asn9337]

short answer: YES. long live Alexandra and sci-hub

[@lok5468]

As a uni student, fk yes

[@pazaccagmail]

Yes

[@Hugo-lm7ed]

Long live!!

[@Rafael-nm7uz]

I love sci-hub

[@madisonwatt2117]

First time to ever hit "like" on a video - I'm 34 years old, watched countless hours of youtube and enjoyed a lot of it but nothing ever inspired me to actually click "like" when told to click like and subscribe. Medlife Crisis, thank you for making this video, doing the interview and promoting others' work on this topic, shedding light on this issue - it's a stain on science, on humanity's inheritance from our brightest minds, who work so hard to contribute their effort to the common good. Our greatest heroes, yourself included. Thank you.

[@ienjoyfoods]

Thank you for this video! Highlighting one of the biggest issues with access to science. As a member of the general public who just wants to understand the science behind certain topics further. Paywalls make it difficult.

[@Stereochemistry]

I can firmly declare that at certain point in my life i have earned more on a monthly level as a street musician than as a PhD student (with publications and a patent application) at one of the most renowned medical research institutes in Europe. Not because you earn millions by playing on the streets, but because PhD, Post Doc and PI wages in academia are shamefully low considering the amount of work and working hours (weekends included) that are invested into it. Being pushed to publish so you can get a 1-2 year grant to cover your wage is a very real thing. Safe contracts in academia are a rarity, and yet the public perception is that being in the ivory tower of academia makes you filthy rich.

[@Cabbage-dk6nu]

That's one of my major points against conspiracy theorists- medical researchers, biochem professors, all those sorts of people, became researchers rather than going to work directly for Big Pharma because they like being right more than they like money. There's no paying off the guy who worked for 15 years at sub-minimum wage before he got a decent contract to get him to lie to the public or keep something hidden when he could publish the Article of the Century about the topic instead!

[@fernandoandutta]

Please notify people to keep updating the URLs into en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis! Sci-Hub, Library_Genesis and others need to migrate between Generic top-level domains from time to time (.st .se .tw and others). #WikiLetters (Finally into wikidata www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q98053916 ) supports the quality-checking of science, and WL aims to bring2everyone@everywhere the virtual-gears between the pages mentioned above of wikipedia and sources of science. If you have suggestions for improvement, or if you wish to make a nice demonstration of how WikiLetters works via youtube or vimeo, we very much appreciate. WL aims for #RealOpencience without bribing the bureaucracy of the system. Thank you very much!

[@Stereochemistry]

@UCUUSDD2je7FQAGYTcJ9WNhg indeed. I was at Karolinska, we need 4 publications to finish a PhD, but your mentor can decide if you are allowed to use a certain publication for your thesis or not. On average people end up needing 6-8 of those. Or at least this was back in my days. At KI you also need to defend your thesis, your experimental design and hypotheses at the beginning of your PhD. Only then you are considered a registered PhD student at KI. It can take up to a year of work for this to happen, and the salary prior to defense is öower than the social help. Afterwards it gets better but it is still very tight for living in Stockholm as the rents are high and very little housing is available. I know Netherlands is different but still not immune from the insecurities. (let alone if you're a woman who wants a family)

[@porschepanamera92]

@@Stereochemistry In Belgium we get an above national average wage though and I believe it is the same regardless of the field you're doing your research in. In my case (structural engineering) we need at least 2 peer-reviewed publications or 1 and a patent submission. So I'm actually pretty fortunate that I'm able to do this kind of work.

[@Stereochemistry]

@@porschepanamera92 so happy to read this!! This is how it should be. Unfortunately it is quite the opposite in at least a few other countries in Europe. Italy being one of them, for example. Greece, too. Berlin/Germany depends a bit on the grants you land but you're definitely not above the average wage as a PhD student. North Germany we're talking around 1400-1900 euro/month depending on the city, south Germany it's more like 2000-2400 eur/month but living costs in Bavaria for example are much higher than in Berlin. Still, you're also above the utter misery you get in Italy (1132, 71 euro a month since 2019, it used to be 800 eur in 2007 when i first applied snd then got raised to 1000 euro 2 years later. Mind you, Northern Italy is pretty pricey, especially Milan and the surrounding area where renting a mini appartement can easily cost you 700 euro. So i wish the rest of the EU looks up more to Belgium!

[@leedao3085]

Omg the girl waving at me on Sci-hub actually exist!

[@nancydeborah7918]

Ha ha I love her!! It puts a smile on my face when I see her wave and I wave back! Amidst annoying reading sessions hahah!!

[@RED-jg6mt]

lmao

[@hariprabukrishnasamynaidug3629]

Same thought 😂

[@RWKIN]

@@nancydeborah7918 Maybe she looks cute, but she is actually a pro Stalin and Mao- commie. I can say that for sure since I know Russian and can read her posts in Internet.

[@nancydeborah7918]

@@RWKIN probably... I do not know russian nor do I follow here on the internet... But that site actually helps alot of students from countries and universities like mine where quality of education is a huge gamble! Not defending or opposing her political views as I don't know enough to comment about that!

[@arturomacor3615]

Outstanding video. I’m a first year uni student, and I’m glad to know of the darker side of science research, and vehemently hope that some work gets done to make knowledge more accessible to everyone, no matter their circumstances.

[@elliehakuli2561]

As someone that is extremely interested in educating themselves I believe knowledge should be free. It's the only cure for ignorance. EDIT: Also I am poor

[@Stereochemistry]

Your micro advertisement pitching is unmatched. Chapeau.

[@karim_ghibli]

The explanation how it all started is hilarious. It's literally how a stereotypical poor, altruistic, nerd scientist didn't think ahead to understand how the stereotypical greedy businessman will exploit the scientist and get rich.

[@tybera1114]

It's more like, things changed, and the business model didn't change with it, it just kept making more money. Journals used to cost money because there was actual work put into them by editors and other scientists and they had to go to print, all of that cost money which is why the business model exists. Then someone got spicy and decided to to take that into digital rights, put zero work in, plaster whatever up, and gate everything behind DRM charging a base fee for every paper. If there was a properly maintained, searchable, service that regularly vetted works, and actually, you know, put work in. Then charged a small subscription fee to access, I think a lot of people would be okay with that.

[@magical571]

​@@tybera1114 Sweet child, you are proving the op's point. And also, pretty blind to the issue, but clearly on a point at which you just need to push a little bit further to reach clarity instead of justifications for something broken since inception!

[@tybera1114]

@@magical571 where exactly did I justify the business practice in my post? I think it's pretty clear I find it muddling and exploitative with today's technology.

[@tommatt2901]

@@tybera1114 so let me get this straight, back then authors used to get payed by these research papers?

[@rubynibs]

"...a stereotypical poor, altruistic, nerd scientist" who was wined, dined, and - the part they left out - plied with drugs of choice and prostitutes, most likely expensive toys of his choice, and his association was paid big money - until he agreed to publish in the "greedy businessman's" journal. Nerds are neither stupid nor altruistic: they're fallible humans.

[@TommyLikeTom]

Alexandra Elbakyan is a genius. Holy cow, when you see an intelligent person it's undeniable.

[@JacobAnawalt]

Great overview! This is an issue that has bothered me for a long time. I appreciate learning more of the history that got us here. I hope we move beyond it soon. I think some solutions are already forming. Another I think should exist, any government funded research should have its findings published without restriction by the government and anyone who wishes to republish it. I think publishers should be able to charge for the service they provide, but there seems to be no competition due to their virtual monopoly. The publish or parish and trivial/novel research issue is also something that needs help. Some way to keep freeloaders off the dole while properly rewarding valuable research and other contributions. Irks me that a university professor’s first job is research and teaching is an annoying distraction.

[@thejohnringo]

This talk was a breath of fresh air. You'll find many of us scientists agreeing with you.

[@thanhavictus]

The whole of scientific tradition and history would herald Alexandra as a hero. The Giants from which the shoulders we stand on would look down on Elselvier

[@siemdecleyn3198]

I found sci-hub more user-friendly than logging in via our university subscription. I passed med school thanks to sci-hub. Watching your video, I realised it's time for a donation.

[@lekanidowu4237]

Who knew Sci-hub was illegal. 🤷🏿‍♂️😅☕.

[@Tommo_]

This is making the music industry look generous fr

[@AB-wq2vy]

Sometimes illegal does not equal wrong. I think EU should change law so that research would be freely available and make it illegal for papers like elsevier to put something behind paywall that has been funded by tax payer money. Alexandra Elbakyan is a hero, despite doing something illegal. I think she should be awarded for her actions.

[@brittanyh1228]

Just wait till you find out that the 10th edition of your college textbook is just the same as the 9th and the 8th and they just keep switching the same stuff around.

[@realdragon]

Don't you just download it illegally?

[@Isolanporzellator]

Having access to most research through my university I learned that most of the papers you look up aren't what you're looking for and often the procedures are either described poorly or just straight up can't be replicated. If I had to pay 30$ for every piece of disappointment I read, I'd be broke within months.

[@sockaccount8116]

Months?? Whoa take look at this guy, spreading around with his cash! :-P

[@Isolanporzellator]

@@sockaccount8116 Nah that's just because I'm lazy :)

[@gaildahlas]

My university only gives people access to journals when they're on campus for some bizarre reason, so (since I can't really travel there at the minute) it's safe to say Sci-Hub is the only reason I'm not failing my Master's degree. I definitely couldn't afford all the sources I use - it'd be something like £600 per essay, and I have to write a lot of essays.

[@Isolanporzellator]

@@gaildahlas Access to journals is only granted to computers on a university network - every student or employee has VPN access to a university IP so working remotely isn't an issue. I find it hard to imagine your uni doesn't have a working VPN access, especially with many employees being forced to work from home. Try asking your uni's IT service, they probably have a similar option.

[@gaildahlas]

@@Isolanporzellator Y'know, it would make a lot of sense if we did have something like that set up. I only started this year and everything's been in a fair bit of crisis, so they haven't told us new students anything about it at all. I guess it just got overlooked? Thanks for the advice though - I'm off to email the IT service and hopefully make things easier for myself.

[@rutashewale]

I support you... I have personally felt this loophole in research during my masters. There are so many students in india who are capable of getting into research.

[@c00bmaster]

I love how much you commit to the bit, filming "outtakes" of you reading your script and then pretending to be distracted by being called to see a patient. it would almost convince me you were a real doctor if I didn't know any better

[@timewalker6654]

Someone give this girl an award or something, what she has done is of incomprehensible value and justified.

[@keganzshapire8634]

She worthy of nobel prices

[@sohamdas7314]

She deserves a nobel prize.

[@TheReligiousAtheists]

And instead they're suing her 😟

[@Ouiigee]

Scihub is my religion and Alexandra Elbakyan my goddess

[@nagitokomaeda3237]

@@Flaakk Sources?

[@hamdy-man2237]

@@Flaakk I just realized you're presumably trolling. Great job btw

[@nagitokomaeda3237]

@@Flaakk Just asking, because I have never heard anything of the sort, and I have been in the topic for quite some time. Even if this is true, it doesn't change that Sci-Hub is incredibly useful to me. It is also very simple: Paste doi, download paper.

[@PETERGIMLE]

John Smith Documentation, please.

[@nagitokomaeda3237]

@@Flaakk I haven't seen any mention of worshipping Stalin last time I've been there. Feel free to correct me though.

[@raymondshikuku8726]

With outermost sincerity, I am confident enough to say -the future is finally happening! Access to knowledge should be free for all.

[@MosesMatsepane]

I sent her an email asking her if she needed any assistance with Dev work. She actually responded. She's truly serving the community.

[@AlfredEiji]

Honestly, yeah, I hate the scam of scientific journal prices. They literally get content for FREE. The costs for the research are all covered by outside sources. Peer reviewers don’t get paid either. If not free, at least the costs should be much lower to better reflect the costs of creating the journals, basically the the printing costs, no the cost of the content.

[@CED99]

The printing costs are likely covered by the adverts in journals... or some journals at least.

[@limiv5272]

Printing? More like the cost of maintaining a website

[@hliask903]

Honestly they could charge 10¢ for each paper instead of the usual $30, and still make some profit.

[@akiraigarashi2874]

@@hliask903 It's a complete rip-off rn.

[@mikeharrison1868]

Same applies to arts publishing, actually.

[@zacharyhenderson2902]

One convenient thing about the major journals having a paywall is when a high school or college student submits a paper to be graded they can cite plenty of studies that their teacher or professor often have to take at face value, because they're not going to pay to better grade one assignment

[@anylife_photography]

Thank you Alexandra! You're the Robin Hood of science!!!

[@fahmyfared7755]

My deepest gratitude to Alexandra Elbakyan, the person voice out our hardship as a scientist. Most of my professors did not get any form of royalty from those BS publications. 100% goes to them and nothing for us. She is making our life easier. Thank you so much Alexandra! Much love to you from Malaysia!

[@ethanstump]

Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave. - Frederick Douglass

[@3nertia]

Which is why you need to be at least a millionaire to afford a decent education heh

[@MajinSayon]

Millionaires are pretty dumb individuals. Monetary wealth doesn't measure intelligence, it measures greed, ruthlessness, cunning and the ability to take advantage of and step over everybody else. The renowned schools of the rich are there not to educate but to make connections that will be useful for the future business.

[@saleh4187]

I publish my research studies in ISI and Scopus indexed journals. But, without Sci-hub, conducting research would be impossible for me, because I live in a poor country that does not spend on giving access to all required databases. Go on Alexandra . You are a legend !

[@akapilka]

Alexandra is the hero of this world, the one hitting the drums of liberation against tyranny! How can we let this to still happen? Knowledge is free, as it is the fuel that propels society towards a better future.

[@user-ij5sw7fd6x]

Alexandra: I just refused to pay the 15 million dollars. Me: 😎😎😎😎😎

[@DJJonPattrsn22]

LOL! I love it! Although I would assert that it's not so much a refusal to pay since that seems to at least partially imply (or perhaps suggest) that she is withholding payment as an act of defiance (as if she had the money to pay). Refusal also indicates (at least to me) a certain level of formal/legal acknowledgement; as well as a 'response' from her, or notification that she's refusing to pay. And yet, all of those aspects of refusal are absent from her actual behavior/actions. Whereas her verbal explanatory response here is that she simply ignores it. So, basically until someone comes along to physically stop her in some manner from doing this, she will keep doing what she's doing and keep the site going. And good for her!

[@yolandievanwyk3230]

👏Savage 👏Queen👏

[@nurikmolodes123]

Казах

[@markrymanowski719]

@@DJJonPattrsn22 I think she might have the backing of Mr Putin.

[@sorenkair]

Rob a man of everything, and he will no longer be in your power.

[@danielsonski]

Love Alexandra Elbakyan, but never forget Aaron Swartz. He was, even, less lucky

[@deadslota]

I was going to say this, he died trying to make scientific publications free for everybody.

[@mfascino]

And Aaron was persecuted relentlessly by the US intelligence agencies. So the tentacles of these companies reach quite far.

[@josephbeatty4421]

They should be free to the public if one tax dollar is used in the research.

[@jacklewis100]

@@josephbeatty4421 So should you pay road tolls if the road was built with public money? And if one tax dollar? Really? I spend 2 years working on some art or production but get a 1% grant but then I'm not allowed to charge anyone to buy my artwork or see my show ?

[@lostaname64]

@@mfascino to make it worse: the current people behind Reddit are scrubbing his involvement with him from Reddit.

[@drkinferno72]

Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he desires to be your master.

[@suddencucumber5994]

my verdict: Aleksandra Elbakyan - based (the opposite of cringe). Publishing companies - cringe (the opposite of based).

[@gomonkeyfly]

publishing companies: we got journals comrade alexandra: OUR journals much respect. especially for creating the website in 3 days.

[@shinobix4925]

Is there a gofundme out there dedicated to getting Alexandra the best Goddamn lawyers team that exists so she can fight with these big companies? Cause I'd join that as quickly as possible

[@shinobix4925]

@@JustxStupid That's the most beautiful thing I've heard all day

[@dionagona8205]

They can’t touch her so why hire lawyers. She’s in the perfect position to do what she’s doing and get away with it, otherwise her name and face would not be known. Love it. Essentially giving the middle finger to publishing companies.

[@shinobix4925]

@@dionagona8205 fuck yeah, sticking it to man and knowing they can't do anything about it

[@user-wm7cz4xo3f]

@@JustxStupidBut she is in Kazakhstan right now? It doesn't contradict your thesis tho, nobody really cares about piracy and copyright in CIS countries.

[@lorinori3776]

@@JustxStupid Im not sure what you mean by "nazi Ukraine", but just in case: Ukraine is neither nazi nor part of Russia

[@davidsamways]

Thanks for making this video, academic publishing is indeed one of the greatest barefaced scams ever to be pulled off! I'm the editor of a fully open access (no charges to submit or read) peer reviewed journal in the social sciences. Fortunately we are supported by a charity that pay me a part-time salary and our publishing costs. After running completely independently for five years we now have partnered with small but successful publisher as we were simply unable to provide the technical material needed to get good visability on the web. Moreover, there is a chicken-and-egg problem of getting sufficient submissions to make the journal sustainable while not being indexed and becoming indexed itself depending on the number of articles submitted making the journal sustainable. Of course, there's another glaring contradiciton that works in favour of the big publishers and that is that they provide the important indexes. Academics at the beginning of the careers cannot afford to published in journals without impact factors and so gravitate to those controlled by the big publishing houses. However, with that said, we do publish early career academics who often cite support for our model as the reason for submitting to us - so perhaps there is hope. Teaming up with a small publisher should solve many of our problems and help us toward that all important indexing and impact factor, but all this costs money, but as you say the issue isn't whether publishers have a role or should get paid, it's about how much they get paid. Shopping around for a publisher we found that one of the big beasts wanted something in the region of £50K to publish or twice yearly journal, while our small publisher wanted a fraction of this and, I believe, is offering a better service.

[@biblicallyaccurateangel2476]

dear alexandra elbakyan, me and every other high schooler across the world worships you 🙏 thank you so much

[@MusicBent]

FYI if anyone is ever looking for just a hand full of papers, email the author and they will usually gladly send you a copy

[@alexander-jl6cs]

Yesss, this is very helpful to know

[@kaushilathilakasiri8061]

Author also has no access here 🙋🏾‍♀️

[@IndigoIndustrial]

Kaushila Thilakasiri They could send you the unformatted accepted copy or the uncorrected proof copy. Also, the journal usually gives a free PDF copy that can be shared with colleagues or used as lecture material.

[@MusicBent]

@baby bean true 😅. One benefit of emailing the author is that you can ask follow up questions and get clarification on specifics, which has proved especially useful when I’ve been required to realize their theoretical model in my practical code. Few or no peer reviewers are going to not only replicate the study, but then go build some critical infrastructures on that theory.

[@kaushilathilakasiri8061]

@@IndigoIndustrial why should I opt for an “unformatted copy” of my own work when there is sci-hub which is an option only banned by current law which will o day change like the law of slavery being legal one time in the world.

[@phuongnguyenoanviet9594]

I am doing my phd, and sci-hub is the miracle of god. Knowledge should be free for everyone

[@fionadreesbach3685]

I'm only doing my final project for highschool but it's a godsend

[@jacklewis100]

Well, when you finish your PhD and write any work, I hope you won't object to people stealing your work...

[@fionadreesbach3685]

@@jacklewis100 ...stealing would be plagiarism, not this

[@jacklewis100]

@@fionadreesbach3685 Not if I'm reselling it, even stating you as author.

[@fionadreesbach3685]

@@jacklewis100 sci-hub gives it for free and the authors don't get paid by any journals. Did you even watch the video?

[@KrasnoludKosier]

Fascinating video - I've never thought about these "regular science publications" like that - thanks for making me aware!!!

[@thysonsacclaim]

Exactly. Current example I am using though is a friend who had to pay $8,900 to have their article published. 2 authors, so they split the fee. I believe they had some agreement with where they were employed to be able to do research on their own time, but had to publish on their own. Crazy.

[@EebstertheGreat]

Google Scholar returns 47 results for "thank alexandra elbakyan." These include articles published in Elsevier's _NeuroImage,_ Springer Nature's _Science Reports,_ World Scientific's _Modern Physics Letters A,_ and other high profile, high price journals.

[@syzerix3157]

Oh well... time to access them anyway...

[@ChiragN24]

The irony 🤣

[@jofx4051]

Oof

[@ca-ke9493]

It sounds like those researchers used sci-hub, but ultimately for publication they couldnt get out of the whole system.

[@lynndakay]

Google scholar was hard to use , let’s say it was not user friendly for me .

[@gcsusetyo]

Alexandra means defender of mankind. She is doing just that.

[@fernandoandutta]

Please notify people to keep updating the URLs into en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis! Sci-Hub, Library_Genesis and others need to migrate between Generic top-level domains from time to time (.st .se .tw and others). #WikiLetters (Finally into wikidata www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q98053916 ) supports the quality-checking of science, and WL aims to bring2everyone@everywhere the virtual-gears between the pages mentioned above of wikipedia and sources of science. We ask you to make a nice demonstration of how WikiLetters works via youtube or vimeo, we very much appreciate. This is an example ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/fIO3Y2WCbtyWa6c ), from which you can generate a better version on your own channel. WL aims for #RealOpencience without bribing the bureaucracy of the system. A.S. rip. And Alexa, we will not forget your masterpiece!!! Thank you very much!

[@guestimator121]

@@fernandoandutta Or just download Telegram, and add @SciHub bot to your contacts, and instead of searching, you just enter the DOI of the article in the chat box

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

This is an excellent video. There are two issues here, one of funding and one of control. As for control: Science should not be subject to politicization or trends or sensationalism, but it is. Take out most of the profit and most of the marketing will go with it. As for funding: If the knowledge is the result of privately funded research, then it's up to the owner what to do with it. Anything that has tax payer funding involved in its development should never be behind a pay wall and that includes anything that comes out of a state funded university. It's already been paid. The solution is for governments to tie research grants and the use of university facilities with free publication. But there is money here, money with which to buy votes.

[@Gupiliam]

Every collage student should watch this video!!! You've got a subscriber here. Thank you for sharing this perspective.

[@schoo9256]

I just hope more studies with negative results can be made available. There have to be people wasting time and money on studies that return negative results, which have actually already been done over and over again, and the next people to do the study don't know about it because negative results don't get published

[@JackFou]

How would you even know that an experiment genuinely doesn't work and that it wasn't just an error on the side of experimenter? Stuff being tried over and over again because you don't know it's been tried already is one thing but I could just as easily imagine a scenario where someone doesn't follow through on a good idea because someone else falsely reported that it doesn't work. To make it worse, how would you even begin to set the bar for what to include? There is an infinite amount of chemical reactions or biological experiments that don't work, some more obvious than others. Do I get to publish all my failed attempts at turning lead into gold?

[@schoo9256]

@@JackFou I believe the answer to your first question is "to make the experiment and results publically available and then see if they can be replicated". As to the rest... I am referring to plenty of research that is done in universities that doesn't get published because the results are boring or inconclusive. It's all data. Maybe if the alchemists had had a centralised data base of failed experiments that had been tried and replicated they would have abandoned the quest to turn lead into gold much more quickly.

[@rosie4967]

@@JackFou research journals already have their own standards for bad procedure and there are plenty of screening tests that can be applied to papers and are already being used in things such as meta-analysis. What you are talking about is something science has already considered and maybe it could go further and be better. But the issue is good solid science is being refused by research journals because the results aren’t exciting enough e.g. non-significant results or negative results, this is a known issue as that has been demonstrated through research and is regularly spoken about by academics and in universities.

[@OptimalOwl]

@@JackFou False negatives are possible, but false positives are going to be a lot more common. This is in part because most possible ideas are false, and in part because scientists are able and strongly encouraged to interpret their data in ways that give positive results. As for publishing your failed alchemical experiments, I honestly can't see any good reason why you shouldn't.

[@JackFou]

@@OptimalOwl Have you ever worked as an experimental scientist? Whether an experiment works is not a yes/no dichotomy. Experimental parameters are a problem with many dimensions and small variations can have large effects on the outcome. The issue with null results is that you need to be very careful about what you can conclude from it. WHY didn't the expected or desired result materialize? Is it something that's inherently not possible? Is the study design flawed? Is it an issue with the data? Is the entire premise wrong? There could be a million reasons why something didn't work. Information about failed experiments could be useful for reference, to see whether other people struggled with the same issues when you're running into errors. However, simply taking negative results at face value and concluding that x doesn't work and therefore we don't need to waste more time and resources studying it, would be the wrong way to go about it.

[@OmarChida]

12:25 I got goosebumps and felt really uncomfortable when I heard the end of the poor Aaron Swartz, when at the end I heard "he hanged himself". The system is really broken :(.

[@JoannaVancouver]

This documentary about Aaron Swartz is excellent (and very sad) ---> kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6fdYWmHhJiIobM

[@saifaddeenal-manaseer6325]

Me too

[@DJJonPattrsn22]

What is really upsetting & frightening to me is that with just a little bit of investigation it becomes apparent that so many of our systems (throughout civilization, on virtually every level & topic) are broken; and in some way spoiled or sabotaged by greed! People devise more & more obtuse and clever ways to disguise greed, or come up with some kind of seemingly viable & reasonable justification for it.

[@konradschargel5314]

Mártir

[@yaseminibrahim6988]

me too :((

[@vomeronasal]

Outstanding. Of the twenty-odd papers I have published, I have always had to do my own statistical analysis, all of my own figures and artwork, and all of the editing. Not sure where Springer and Elsevier think that they are "adding value." Making me claim that my paper is an "advertisement" since I had to pay page fees to even get it reviewed really doesn't add much to my science. My last few papers have been ONLY offered to open access journals. PLOS ONE all the way!

[@shogunrua1040]

Alexandra, just like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, you are a hero. These power hungry people may come after you but you will remain a hero in people’s mind.

[@nikanora97]

WOW, Love how a Russian-Kazakhstanian woman changes the scientific world! Greetings from an Uzbek!

[@nourishedbyscience]

Good video, thank you for making it. The issue is one of a dozen reasons why I left academia, after >25 years. As one example, I served on the editorial boards of two journals for years, without any pay of course, but whenever I published a paper there, they still charged me 'page charges' of a few thousand dollars, which I frequently had to pay out of my own pocket because the research grant that had funded the research had long expired ... What really resonated with me, however, was what you said around 21:10. Every single academic I know starts their career with a deep desire to make a difference, in my case to the lives of people with chronic disease such as type 2 diabetes. And once we get to that desired academic dream job, we find ourselves entangled in burocracy, IRB modification requests, budgeting, trainings to meet all of the regulatory requirements, non-stop writing of grants (the most ambitious of which never get funded), jobs you are expected to do for free (such as reviewing papers and grants), sitting in faculty meetings and promotion committees, etc etc. I am sure as a clinician, you can relate, but it's so frustrating how we as humans are squandering the opportunities that lie in all of this passion of highly trained, intelligent, and motivated people. It's frustrating to me to no end ...

[@KevinWatzke]

WOW! I have so much respect for Alexandra Elbakyan, in my Opinion she is kind of a Hero!

[@abhaymaurya6784]

Irony of the system: Every University paying million dollars to access same research published by their own researchers Can't anyone make Wikipedia for research

[@ken90ny]

Unfortunately Wikipedia is prone to edits by the public which makes it not reliable. However the references it has is something that I often use.

[@abhaymaurya6784]

@@ken90ny I already mentioned "Wikipedia for research" it is not like normal Wikipedia page

[@ken90ny]

@@abhaymaurya6784 more a pirate bay of research

[@pflernak]

@@ken90ny A mayor step in the right direction would be for universities to be the ones to grant one the editing privilege. When you get a degree you get a personified account showing your degrees. Maybe have restrictions in place based on the degrees one holds. Also a backlog of prior versions of the articles and a mechanism for depriving one of the editing privileges. Universities from countries that have serious fake degree problems should of course be excluded.

[@fernandoandutta]

It is on :), and will definitely grow at large steps when people start to spread the word en.wikiversity.org/wiki/WikiJournal_User_Group