I need sci-hub for my academic work. I don’t have the time and energy to write thousands of people and begging them for a copy of their research.
My method is: Use crossref to search through metadata -> ctrl+click any publication sounding even remotely relevant -> Read abstracts and download the interesting sounding publications using sci-hub -> scan through all conclusions/discussions and keep the ones that seem to be useful -> read all publications in full that have relevant info.
When doing research, previously I’d scan through hundreds of articles like that every day. In politics, economics, sociology, psychology, etc. most research is either trash or outdated and I will never use it. I am also totally disinterested in non-digital formats (anything that doesn’t have a ctrl+f function is really worthless), so usually those 100+ publications will be condensed to 40 I download with sci-hub and then 3-4 publications that I will actually read through. **I don’t even want to imagine the timewaste involved if I had to request all of these from the library or contact the authors for a copy. It’s absurd that people even suggest this. Like, do you even research, bro???**
All my own research is freely available online and I just don’t understand the greedy people who want to make money off of their research. We are all standing on the shoulders of giants. Nobody’s research is just their own. It’s a public good.
Why is there no campaign to name and shame researchers who don’t make all their publications available for free online?
Why is there no campaign to destroy Elsevier, etc.?
There should straight-up be a “black” list and a “good” list of publishers, universities, and researchers… and international collaboration and grants should primarily go to the “good” people and institutions. People should also be encouraged NOT to cite any research that’s behind any kind of access hurdle, be it a paywall or some kind of membership as it makes peer-review harder.
Censoring research straight-up kills modern scientific research methods that rely on everything being available instantly and for free. It’s setting us back as a society and I don’t know how to cope with this nonsense.