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Microblog Memes @lemmy.world

Jhogenbaum @leminal.space

1w ago

Bad advice for scientists

43 comments

the absurd part is that researchers and peer-reviewers often don't even get paid for their work.
the privately owned journal sacks all the profit.
in my opinion, the universities and public libraries should take it on them to publish their own journal. this makes sense since it is already part of the university's job to distribute knowledge (by educating students). and a journal is just that: a way to distribute knowledge.
- having third-party publishers that are specifically not affiliated with any org that produces research was supposed to prevent biases in who and what gets published and provide a kind of standardized system for determining the quality of a paper / peer-review process /etc and allow for comparison across the whole scientific community. It has since been corrupted for profit takers. I am liking the idea of integrating into the public library system though..couldn't be a university library though because again, biases.
- Researchers often pay to have their work considered for publication.

Over the last few years, my pirating became minimal, only a few times a year, when I couldn't find it on streaming.
I find myself going back to pirating recently, for the simple reason that I WANT to screw over these propagandistic megacorps in every way possible. Fuck them, I'm not paying for it, I'm stealing it, and feeling really good about it.
- Sometimes I download it and then delete it, so that I can download it again! Mwahahahahaah
  
  Keeping it on your drive so you can seed or start a new torrent would do more damage. If you are able do to so.
- Heck yeah. Rock on
- What's the current way I shouldn't be priating, I hear isp's LOVE it when people torrent. So I'm guessing that's what I should be doing huh?
  
  I've never done torrents, I don't even know how. I've always used forums. Bolt was the best one for many years, but they closed shop a few years ago.

Thank you, I am the world's #1 copyright respector!
I appreciate the places to avoid!

annas-archive.org
You might have to switch your DNS to one that doesn't block based on copyright
(e.g. Cloudflare: 1.1.1.1)
Actually i think the effort they are making is cool. It goes well beyond piracy and I think is a good idea esp in face of the world rn.
- "Actually i think the effort they are making is cool. It goes well beyond piracy and I think is a good idea esp in face of the world rn."
  I agree. I remember recently their blog had a post about how shadow libraries are more important now than they've ever been, and it made a compelling case. I started reading that piece expecting some thin justification about breaking the law (like a guy I knew who argued that it was ethical for him to deal drugs because the stuff he sold was super pure so it was basically harm reduction. It's not that I disagreed with that point per se, but rather that I knew it was just bullshit he told himself so he felt ethically okay doing the only job that was viable for him). In the case of Anna's Archive though, I was quite quickly won over by their arguments about the societal importance of the service (I was already won over on the individual benefit side of things)
- Thanks for letting the world know of another really bad site to totally avoid 😉
  
  It's an especially bad site because it also has links to other external naughty services, like Z-library.
- Fuck, which DNS blocks pirate sites? I've never heard of this before.

I'm struggling to think of an ethical reason not to pirate research papers. which research is done with public funding, and no money goes to the research team or anything involved with the actual research.

Many researches will just send you the pdf if you ask for it.

Where can I register a domain that won't give me up for doing something like this?
Asking for a friend.
- If Wikipedia's page on z-library is any indication, then a Tor link is probably your best bet. Absolutely shocking how they keep an up-to-date link there where anyone can see and use it.
  
  there is also Where is Libgen which is apparently also powered by Wikidata
  
  Shh! Don't let them in on our little secret.

This is, broadly speaking, cool and useful advice.
But I keep seeing people enthusiastically post "You know you can get university research papers for free from Quasi-Illegal Source XYZ" without anyone really illustrating what all this cutting edge research is supposed to help me accomplish. Posting this to /c/gradstudentresearchers would make more sense than /c/microblogmemes.

Just make sure you avoid getting in trouble by using the facebook strategy of downloading so much that they shrug their shoulders instead of prosecuting
- The guy who started doing this (downloading academic articles and making them freely available en mass) was actually driven to suicide by a court case, so be careful with that.
  While he was alive tho, Aaron Schwartz was one cool dude.
- Only works if you have a billion dollars though. If you do it on a big scale, they're just going to Aaron Swartz you.
  
  Hmm, good point.. Could you lend me a billion dollars? I have some downloading to do!

Annas archive is also good. If it still exists, I haven't checked in a while and I recall them having some issues
- Anna's Archive is great!
- It's the opposite, AA is pretty reliable whereas Libgen (.is domain) has been offline for over a month, came back online just a few days ago.
  
  Libgen.li is fine, but yeah, they aren't the most stable right now.
  
  Huge, glad to hear they are still around :D

medical and stem journals are actually not because the scientist or or university is paywalling them, but the publishing companies are. many articles are free on places like research gates but not all, yea can pirate them, if your still in a university as a student you get full access to all these journals for free anyways.
- My professor just used to ask the authors of the papers for a copy. I don't think anyone ever had any problems with emailing him a copy of their work. After all they want their work to be cited. That's the whole point

Many many libraries have access to journals as well so check your local library!!
- You're still depriving the capitalists of their well deserved, hard earned money! (ಥ_ʖಥ)
  If anyone is interested, there's been an excellent episode recently on the "Behind the Bastards" podcast about Robert Maxwell and how he became a self made billionaire by inventing and fucking up modern scientific publishing with the support of British intelligence services.
  
  I've not listened to that episode, but I remember that when I first learned about Robert Maxwell's legacy, I was astounded by also unsurprised (because it made a lot of things make sense in hindsight). As an ex-academic, I'm especially pissed off.
- Yeah, my wife always gives me the gentle reminder to check the library first. I let my library card lapse, but I'll have her sometimes check books out for me before I go pirate them. We have a few friends who work in the system, and every single interaction you have with the library benefits them. The library is a wonderful place, I need to stop being lazy and just go re-register, but my wife is an enabler.
  
  I tell anyone I can that you can check out ebooks now from libraries. After you register online, you just download an app, sign in, and get to reading. Hoopla and Libby are 2 that I use, but I'm sure there are more.

43 comments