ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER Volume - 10 | Issue - 06 | June - 2021 | PRINT ISSN No. 2277 - 8179 | DOI : 10.36106/ijsr INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
SCI-HUB AND LIBGEN: BURGLAR, PIRATE OR ROBINHOOD OF MEDICAL LITERATURE? A COMMENTARY
Medical Education Senior Resident, Department of Physiology, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi, Mayank Agarwal* India. *Corresponding Author ABSTRACT The commentary on Sci-hub and Libgen has been written to highlight important issue about the nature of these websites. Are they pirate, burglar or Robinhood of medical literature? KEYWORDS Libgen, Pirate, Robinhood, Sci-hub Why Does It Even Matter? scholars from all disciplines and geographical regions of India use Sci- Recently, three giants in the educational publishing industry, namely hub.[17] Students usually nd ways to evade the limitations of their Elsevier, Wiley India, and the American Chemical Society, led a institutional libraries that have fewer copies of books to cater to the lawsuit against Sci-Hub and Libgen in Delhi high court for distributing need of all, and certain books and journals are not even available.[4] scientic articles and books copyrighted by these publishers. In today's digital era, more so during the COVID-19 pandemic, this lawsuit Not only Libgen but other websites also provide access to e-books, reignites a critical debate — whether knowledge should be freely videos, and notes either freely or selling them at a lower cost. The accessible to all even though it may involve unfair means or support bottom line being, in resource-limited countries like India, there will the publishers and obtain the knowledge only through the proper legal be one or other way of exploitation to meet the unfullled demands of route that could lead to economic burden on an individual or an researchers and scholars, and hence Libgen and Sci-hub cannot be institution.[1] blamed entirely.
What Is Sci-hub And Libgen? Lastly, in the words of defenders (Sci-hub and Libgen against the Sci-hub is a website that allows a person to illegally download lawsuit) itself: “….as a consequence of free educational book copyrighted research papers for free, bypassing the compulsion where distribution: within decades, generations of people everywhere in the a reader needs to pay the publisher for getting access to the specic world will grow up with access to the best scientific texts of all articles locked behind a paywall. Alexandra Elbakyan of Kazakhstan time….”.[4] “…. Academic research cannot flourish without the free started Sci-hub in 2011. In 2016, Alexandra, the science pirate queen, flow of information between those who produce it and those who seek was featured in Nature's “top 10 people who mattered” list.[2,3] it….”.[1]
Libgen or Library Genesis came to the surface in 2008. This database Why “Burglar” or “Pirate”? illegally provides access/download links to portable document format A burglar enters the building illegally to steal. Various established (PDF) or electronic publication (epub) format of copyrighted books, universities and pharmaceutical companies take a yearly subscription most of which are scientic, but it also includes ction books and from Elsevier and other publishers to access the copyright papers comics.[4] behind a paywall. Sci-hub through sources unknown get the login credentials of the faculties afliated to these universities, and then they Why “Robinhood”? log in from a remote location to download the copyrighted research A search of the phrase “thank Alexandra Elbakyan” in google scholar papers.[18-21] Though the Sci-hub owner never accepted the accusations will show numerous papers acknowledging the pirate queen for of stealing credentials, it is advisable not to open Sci-hub from the creating Sci-hub. “Is it wise of the scholars to acknowledge Alexandra institutional IP address. in research articles and thesis?” is a matter of different debate.[5] A pirate copies, uses, or sells somebody's work without permission or Sci-hub and Libgen are entirely free services to date i.e., no prot is having the rights to do so. Libgen and Sci-hub do not sell the made by making such copyrighted papers and e-books available to en- copyrighted material, but they do make copies of them. Users, in a masse. In 2016, All India Peoples Science Network did an analysis that sense, are also pirates since they are using the material without the showed a vast number of papers have been downloaded from these permission of the copyright owner. sites by Indian scholars. If scholars had gone through legal routes to obtain these educational materials, it would have cost Indian There had been allegations on these websites linking them to Russian universities or students a hefty amount of money, which neither the intelligence, though nothing was proven against the owner of Sci- students nor most universities have.[1] The dependency on these sites hub.[1,22] Recently, in the United Kingdom, police are warning students has increased in the COVID-19 era.[6] not to use these websites.[23] In a recent letter to the editor, several alternatives of Sci-hub were presented, but no matter the source, if Sci-hub provides access to most of the paywalled literature and someone is obtaining copyright material without permission of the increases the citation of papers.[7,8] However, there is an argument that owner, it will always be illegitimate.[24] an increase in citation due to Sci-hub cannot be proven entirely.[9] Piracy of the books by Libgen leads to economic loss to the publisher Many researchers believe that blocking Sci-hub in India will do more and authors in the form of royalty. This could lead to the disinterest of harm to researchers than benetting the publishers.[10] In a debate authors in updating the books which are of utmost importance in the whose video is available online, it was proven that Sci-hub is doing eld of science that is changing rapidly. Downloading e-books from more good than harm to scholarly communication.[11] Many Indian Libgen should be considered more immoral/unethical than illegal — if researchers support the work of Sci-hub.[12,13] Another Indian scientist one can afford it, they should always buy the books to support authors. openly wrote that he would not support paid publication culture instead If the economic condition does not permit them to buy costly books, would support Sci-hub.[14] then the use of this resource could be their last resort. One survey's result concluded that “Indian students from even the best Is an alternative way possible? of the institutes are heavily reliant on unauthorised (supposedly Though the case was successfully defended by Indian scholars in Delhi illegal) sources to access educational materials”.[15] In another survey, High Court,[1] still concrete steps are needed to ensure the free ow of almost 60% of the respondents admitted that they have used Sci-hub information to scholars through legitimate routes. Among a few several times a month to obtain literature as their institutional library suggestions, one was to modify copyright law and compel copyright does not have access to that research article.[16] Another survey says that owners to give educational material at a reasonable cost.[25] There has International Journal of Scientific Research 71 Volume - 10 | Issue - 06 | June - 2021 PRINT ISSN No. 2277 - 8179 | DOI : 10.36106/ijsr been a reference of music industry adaptation too that if a person can [13] Mudur GS. Indian scientists express support for free access to academic research get music at cheaper rates, they might not go for piracy, same applies [Internet]. The Telegraph. 2020 [cited 2021 Apr 17]. Available from: https://www. [26] telegraphindia.com/india/indian-scientists-express-support-for-free-access-to- for academic journals and books. academic-research/cid/1801693 [14] Shankar-Raman TR. Why I won't review or write for Elsevier and other commercial scientic journals [Internet]. The Wire. 2021 [cited 2021 Apr 17]. Available from: The role of the National Society is crucial to curb immoral/unethical https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/why-i-wont-review-or-write-for-elsevier-and- behaviour by providing the content either free of cost or at no prot no other-commercial-scientic-journals/ loss model. If a textbook written by eminent authors is made available [15] SpicyIP. The Sci-Hub case: Why it is time to stop favouring the doctrinal approach to law free of cost, there would be no need for Libgen; for example, over an empirical one [Internet]. SpicyIP [cited 2021 Apr 17]. Available from: [27] [28] https://spicyip.com/2021/01/the-sci-hub-case-why-it-is-time-to-stop-favouring-the- OpenStax and StatsPearl created educational material free of cost. doctrinal-approach-to-law-over-an-empirical-one.html Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAM) through blogs, opinion [16] Raju NV. Use and Perception of Sci-Hub by Library and Information Science (LIS) articles, reviews, invited lectures, podcasts, and/or social media professionals: From an Indian perspective [Internet]. SocArXiv; 2021. Available from: [29] http://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/2jzng articles could be a viable answer to curb piracy. [17] Singh VK, Srichandan SS, Bhattacharya S. What do Indian researchers download from Sci-Hub [Internet]. arXiv; 2021. Available from: http://arxiv.org/abs/2103.16783 [18] Pitts A. Think Sci-Hub is just downloading PDFs? Think again [Internet]. The Scholarly There had been individual efforts to disseminate knowledge, but an Kitchen. 2018 [cited 2021 Apr 17]. Available from: https://scholarlykitchen. integrated approach by society is needed for a fruitful result. Until sspnet.org/2018/09/18/guest-post-think-sci-hub-is-just-downloading-pdfs-think- then, we are stuck with the usage of these websites, and in case anyone again/ [19] Does Sci-Hub phish for credentials? [Internet]. Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week. does not know how to operate them, then a simple YouTube search will 2016 [cited 2021 Apr 17]. Available from: https://svpow.com/2016/02/25/does-sci-hub- sufce, and a google search will lead to the working extensions or phish-for-credentials/ mirror websites of Sci-hub and Libgen. [20] Sci-hub problems and questions [Internet]. University of Windsor. [cited 2021 Apr 17]. Available from: https://leddy.uwindsor.ca/sci-hub-problems-and-questions [21] Smith D. Sci-Hub: How does it work? [Internet]. The Scholarly Kitchen. 2016 [cited Concluding Remark. 2021 Apr 17]. Available from: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2016/02/25/sci-hub- It is up to researchers and scholars themselves whether to use or not to how-does-it-work/ [22] Elsevier. Allegations linking Sci-hub with Russian intelligence [Internet]. Elsevier. use these resources by jotting down the positive and negatives points [cited 2021 Apr 17]. Available from: https://www.elsevier.com/connect/allegations- for the usage of these websites. However, it is always better to follow linking-sci-hub-with-russian-intelligence ethics and obtain material through a legitimate route. [23] Coughlan S. Police warn students to avoid science website [Internet]. BBC. 2021 Mar 19 [cited 2021 Apr 17]; Available from: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-56462390 [24] Gadhvi M, Srivastav S, Sharma RK. Access to scientic literature: Legitimate channels. Indian J Physiol Pharmacol. 2020;64(2):155-7. [25] SpicyIP. Copyright and the Sci-Hub/LibGen case: A constitutional query [Internet]. SpicyIP. [cited 2021 Apr 17]. Available from: https://spicyip.com/2020/12/copyright- and-the-scihub-libgen-case-a-constitutional-query.html [26] Garg R. The Sci-hub case: a critical analysis [Internet]. Ipleaders. 2021 [cited 2021 Apr 17]. Available from: https://blog.ipleaders.in/sci-hub-case-critical-analysis/ [27] Gordon Betts J, Young KA, Wise JA, Johnson E, Poe B, Kruse DH, et al. Anatomy and physiology [Internet]. OpenStax; 2013. Available from: https://openstax.org/details/ books/anatomy-and-physiology [28] StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing; 2021. Available from: https://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430685/ [29] Sacherer F, Zoidl P, Eichinger M, Honnef G, Heschl S. Opinion article: Blogs and podcasts in medical education. Tren Anaesth Crit Care. 2019;29:1-3. [30] Fuster JJ, Walsh K. The Good, the bad, and the ugly of interleukin-6 signaling. EMBO J. 2014;33(13):1425-27.
DISCLAIMER: The image used is modied from a paper published in the EMBO journal. The image's copyright is with authors, and it can be used for non-commercial purposes, subject to proper citation of the article, author, and publisher.[30] The original image is available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4194086/gure/g01/
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