this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Technus@lemmy.zip 92 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I was looking for a paper from fucking 2010 that was cited in a Wikipedia article and it was still behind a goddamn paywall.

Sci-Hub is the GOAT.

[–] sunoc@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Looks like a CROW to me but I ain’t no zoologist

[–] notoftenthat@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago

It's a jackdaw

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 88 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

science is principled on the concept of reproducibility.

If the information is behind a paywall, it's inaccessible and therefore beyond critique, making it unscientific.

Stealing publications and releasing them open source brings rigor to science

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 57 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Legitimate question here. What’s stopping researchers from creating their own federated publishing system for academic journals?

[–] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 70 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It's not federated, but arXiv is free and volunteer supported:

https://info.arxiv.org/about/index.html

[–] anzo@programming.dev 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not peer reviewed though. Those are called preprints and not papers. Both would be research articles but the difference matters (to scientists at least).

There's JOSS which is reviewed. I love it!

[–] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Thank you for the clarification!

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Nice! I’ll check it out!

[–] mlg@lemmy.world 48 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Big grants and research money connections are typically only accessible because your paper got published in a "reputable" journal, which of course you only have a chance of getting if you publish with a "reputable" system.

spoilerReputable my ass

[–] HexesofVexes@lemmy.world 43 points 1 week ago

Short Answer - Universities

Long Answer:

To get and hold a job as an academic, you must continually produce "high quality research". To get the job, in the first place, you must also be seen to do this.

"High quality" is often metriced by universities to mean "published in high impact journals" and "well cited". This metric is known to be faulty, but universities really dislike change.

So, to get a job, you have to give up your rights to your research, and to keep your job, you have to do likewise.

Worse, in the current financial climate, academia is seeing unprecedented cuts, which further entrenches this issue.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 week ago

Publishing is a racket. This should have been done decades ago.

[–] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

and/or if the researchers are still alive email them and ask for a copy they will likely be happy to share it

[–] HexesofVexes@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

There is a added bonus here as well - some researchers will not only send the paper, but also offer to answer questions AND send other related papers.

Some academics out there are just really friendly people.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 17 points 1 week ago

Copy is not theft.

[–] Geodad@lemm.ee 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You can also email the author of the paper and they'll usually be happy to send you their work.

I was in the "et al" section of a paper during my undergraduate, and this was highly encouraged by my professor, who was lead author.

[–] Wofls@feddit.org 12 points 1 week ago

based and informationfreedom-pilled

[–] RoyaltyInTraining@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago
[–] daw@feddit.org 7 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] RedBauble@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

I was not expecting a Polynerdeia meme in here, nice