As More Universities ‘Ditch’ Elsevier, Sci-Hub Blossoms
The University of California (UC) is the latest institution to cancel its subscription to leading academic publisher Elsevier. UC cites high costs and the lack of open access research among the reasons. This likely means an increase in traffic for Sci-Hub, the site that's often referred to referred to as 'The Pirate Bay for Science', which may actually play a bigger role than some suspect.
Little more than three years ago, Elsevier, one of the world’s largest academic publishers, took Sci-Hub to court.
It was a mismatched battle from the start. With a net income of more than $2.4 billion per year, the publisher could fund a proper case, while its nemesis relied on donations.
Elsevier won the case, including millions of dollars in damages. However, the site remained online and grew bigger. Ironically, the academic publisher itself appears to be one of the main drivers of this growth.
In recent years there has been a major push in academic circles to move to Open Access publishing. Instead of locking academic publications behind paywalls, they should be freely available to researchers around the world as well as the public at large, the argument goes.
https://torrentfreak.com/as-more-universities-ditch-elsevier-sci-hub-blossoms
The University of California (UC) is the latest institution to cancel its subscription to leading academic publisher Elsevier. UC cites high costs and the lack of open access research among the reasons. This likely means an increase in traffic for Sci-Hub, the site that's often referred to referred to as 'The Pirate Bay for Science', which may actually play a bigger role than some suspect.
Little more than three years ago, Elsevier, one of the world’s largest academic publishers, took Sci-Hub to court.
It was a mismatched battle from the start. With a net income of more than $2.4 billion per year, the publisher could fund a proper case, while its nemesis relied on donations.
Elsevier won the case, including millions of dollars in damages. However, the site remained online and grew bigger. Ironically, the academic publisher itself appears to be one of the main drivers of this growth.
In recent years there has been a major push in academic circles to move to Open Access publishing. Instead of locking academic publications behind paywalls, they should be freely available to researchers around the world as well as the public at large, the argument goes.
https://torrentfreak.com/as-more-universities-ditch-elsevier-sci-hub-blossoms