I'm not an academic, and have barely used my degree since I graduated in the mid 90's, but it is an endless source of frustration that I'm locked out of reading studies, beyond an abstract , thatI...
I'm not an academic, and have barely used my degree since I graduated in the mid 90's, but it is an endless source of frustration that I'm locked out of reading studies, beyond an abstract , thatI find interesting or intriguing.
Knowledge shouldn't be locked away from the great unwashed. It's just another facet of the "us and them" disease that plagues humanity.
Sad thing is, in my experience many people have no idea about how difficult it is to access scientific papers without having full access to a university library. They don't know a single paper can...
Sad thing is, in my experience many people have no idea about how difficult it is to access scientific papers without having full access to a university library. They don't know a single paper can cost upwards of $40, and a single book can cost hundreds of dollars. Even most university graduates don't know that. And they don't know that in order to understand one paper, you might need to access a few other papers, and in order to research a topic, you might need many papers just as you start. Suddenly, you need hundreds of dollars to just inform yourself on some topic before you can start to get productive. And that happens where in most cases it's tax money that paid for the production of such knowledge, and it's tax money that pays the wages of the researchers and the reviewers, and it's again tax money that needs to buy the end result at prices so obscene it's NSFW, for it to appear in a uni's library. So, when they're not robbing me directly through their online store with their inhuman prices for what my tax money made happen, they're robbing each and every country on earth of their tax money through screwing universities and then coercing them into further obscenities by e.g. selling journal subscription as a package so that they have to buy access to what they don't need in order to be able to access what they need indeed. This whole thing is the worst scheme of fraud I've ever heard of or witnessed, because these fucks are leeching off of that thing which is the single most important tradition, invention, thing in human history: science and humanities, the mill of true knowledge, that only thing which renders our life dignified. And people claim that it's piracy when good people take a stance against this crime against humanity. It's fascinating how horribly stupid some people can be.
In Antoine de Saint Exupéry's tale the Little Prince meets a businessman who accumulates stars with the sole purpose of being able to buy more stars. The Little Prince is perplexed. He owns only a flower, which he waters every day. Three volcanoes, which he cleans every week. "It is of some use to my volcanoes, and it is of some use to my flower, that I own them," he says, "but you are of no use to the stars that you own".
[...]
For all the work supported by public money benefiting scholarly publishers, particularly the peer review that grounds their legitimacy, journal articles are priced such that they prohibit access to science to many academics - and all non-academics - across the world, and render it a token of privilege. [emphasis mine]
I am not aware, the inspiration for my posting this here was some misinformation in a related topic; this piece of text does a very good job at teaching about the motivations behind the open...
I am not aware, the inspiration for my posting this here was some misinformation in a related topic; this piece of text does a very good job at teaching about the motivations behind the open access movemwnt.
I'm not an academic, and have barely used my degree since I graduated in the mid 90's, but it is an endless source of frustration that I'm locked out of reading studies, beyond an abstract , thatI find interesting or intriguing.
Knowledge shouldn't be locked away from the great unwashed. It's just another facet of the "us and them" disease that plagues humanity.
Sad thing is, in my experience many people have no idea about how difficult it is to access scientific papers without having full access to a university library. They don't know a single paper can cost upwards of $40, and a single book can cost hundreds of dollars. Even most university graduates don't know that. And they don't know that in order to understand one paper, you might need to access a few other papers, and in order to research a topic, you might need many papers just as you start. Suddenly, you need hundreds of dollars to just inform yourself on some topic before you can start to get productive. And that happens where in most cases it's tax money that paid for the production of such knowledge, and it's tax money that pays the wages of the researchers and the reviewers, and it's again tax money that needs to buy the end result at prices so obscene it's NSFW, for it to appear in a uni's library. So, when they're not robbing me directly through their online store with their inhuman prices for what my tax money made happen, they're robbing each and every country on earth of their tax money through screwing universities and then coercing them into further obscenities by e.g. selling journal subscription as a package so that they have to buy access to what they don't need in order to be able to access what they need indeed. This whole thing is the worst scheme of fraud I've ever heard of or witnessed, because these fucks are leeching off of that thing which is the single most important tradition, invention, thing in human history: science and humanities, the mill of true knowledge, that only thing which renders our life dignified. And people claim that it's piracy when good people take a stance against this crime against humanity. It's fascinating how horribly stupid some people can be.
Thanks you for exerpting the Little Prince quote. Quite a beatiful and powerful sentiment.
You're welcome!
Is LibGen & friends still at risk? This looks like it was posted 3 years ago.
I am not aware, the inspiration for my posting this here was some misinformation in a related topic; this piece of text does a very good job at teaching about the motivations behind the open access movemwnt.
I use libgen a lot. AFAIK it’s not going anywhere.