EXPLORING THE CONVIENIENCE VERSUS NECESSITY DEBATE REGARDING SCI-HUB USE IN THE UNITED STATES by John O. LaDue AS, Monroe Community College, 1998 BA, Grove City College, 1999 MLIS, University of Pittsburgh, 2008 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the School of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education University of Pittsburgh 2018 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF EDUCATION This dissertation was presented by John O. LaDue It was defended on May 16, 2018 and approved by Dr. Lori Delale O’Conner, Assistant Professor, Center for Urban Education Dr. Lindsay Page, Assistant Professor, Psychology in Education Dr. Christinger Tomer, Associate Professor, School of Information Science Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Linda DeAngelo, Associate Professor, Administrative and Policy Studies ii Copyright © by John O. LaDue 2018 iii EXPLORING THE CONVENIENCE VERSUS NECESSITY DEBATE REGARDING SCI-HUB USE IN THE UNITED STATES John O. LaDue, Ed.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2018 This study used multiple regression modeling to explore the relationship between Sci- Hub use in the United States and the characteristics of the areas surrounding the download requests. The purpose of this study was to examine Sci-Hub usage in the United States to explore the validity of academic journal publisher claims of convenience over necessity. This study was broken down into two parts: 1) how Sci-Hub download requests are related to the institutional characteristics of research-intensive universities and 2) how Sci-Hub download requests are related to the population of their geographic location. Convenience, for the purpose of this study, was based on Zipf’s Principle of Least Effort. In the first part of this study, universities were associated with Sci-Hub download requests within a 10-mile radius of the institution. The predictor variables for this section included an institution’s journal expenditures, the size of the graduate student and faculty population, and the amount of research funding from NIH and NSF. Research funding was found to have a positive, significant relationship with Sci-Hub use when controlling for the other predictors. Additionally, an interaction between the amount of research funding and the size of graduate student and faculty population was included in the final model. Institutions with larger numbers of graduate students and faculty and higher levels of research funding were found to iv have the highest levels of Sci-Hub use. This interaction effect suggests that necessity may be more of a driver of Sci-Hub use than convenience. In the second part of the study, Sci-Hub download requests were split up by the core- based statistical areas (CBSAs). The models in this section examined population size, the percentage of the population with an advanced degree, the number and type of higher education institutions, and the number of graduate students. Advanced degree holders were found to have a positive, significant relationship with Sci-Hub use when accounting for the other predictor variables. This finding may suggest necessity as people outside of higher education often do not have access to academic literature. Taken together, the two parts of the study suggest that necessity is likely driving people to use Sci-Hub. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ................................................................................................................................. XIII 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 BACKGROUND ON ACADEMIC LITERATURE AND ACCESS .............. 3 1.1.1 A Brief History of Academic Literature ..................................................... 4 1.1.2 Serials Crisis .................................................................................................. 5 1.1.3 Open Access ................................................................................................... 7 1.1.3.1 Open Access Journals (The Gold Model) ........................................... 8 1.1.3.2 Repositories (The Green Model) ......................................................... 9 1.1.4 Interlibrary Loan ........................................................................................ 10 1.1.5 Article Sharing ............................................................................................ 11 1.1.6 Guerilla Open Access .................................................................................. 12 1.2 SCI-HUB ............................................................................................................. 13 1.2.1 What is Sci-Hub? ........................................................................................ 13 1.2.2 How Publishers Fight Sci-Hub .................................................................. 16 1.3 IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING ACCESS TO ACADEMIC LITERATURE .................................................................................................................... 18 1.3.1 The Functional Importance of Access to Academic Literature .............. 18 1.3.2 The Theoretical Importance of Access to Academic Literature ............. 23 vi 1.4 SIGNIFICANCE AND PURPOSE OF THE STUDY .................................... 27 1.4.1 Delimitations ................................................................................................ 30 1.4.2 Summary ...................................................................................................... 31 2.0 CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATION AND LITERATURE ........................................ 32 2.1 CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATION ..................................................................... 32 2.1.1 Zipf’s Principle of Least Effort .................................................................. 33 2.2 REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE ................................................... 36 2.2.1 Views on Sci-Hub ........................................................................................ 36 2.2.2 Sci-Hub Usage ............................................................................................. 41 2.3 LIMTATIONS AND GAPS IN THE LITERATURE .................................... 50 3.0 METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................... 54 3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................... 55 3.1.1 Sci-Hub and Academic Libraries .............................................................. 55 3.1.2 Sci-Hub and Population ............................................................................. 55 3.2 DATA SOURCES .............................................................................................. 56 3.2.1 Sci-Hub......................................................................................................... 56 3.2.2 IPEDS ........................................................................................................... 56 3.2.3 Census .......................................................................................................... 58 3.2.4 NIH and NSF ............................................................................................... 60 3.2.5 Data Summary ............................................................................................ 61 3.2.6 Sci-Hub and Academic Libraries: Q1 ....................................................... 61 3.2.6.1 Sample .................................................................................................. 61 3.2.7 Sci-Hub and Population: Q2 & Q3............................................................ 70 vii 3.2.7.1 Sample .................................................................................................. 70 3.3 DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................. 79 3.4 METHOD OF ANALYSIS ............................................................................... 81 3.4.1 Sci-Hub and Academic Libraries .............................................................. 81 3.4.2 Sci-Hub and Population ............................................................................. 84 3.5 STUDY LIMITATIONS ................................................................................... 85 3.5.1 Sci-Hub and Academic Libraries .............................................................. 86 3.5.2 Sci-Hub and Population ............................................................................. 87 4.0 RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 89 4.1 QUESTION 1 ..................................................................................................... 89 4.1.1 Model Building and Variable Reduction .................................................. 89 4.1.1.1 Final Model with Main Effects .......................................................... 91 4.1.2 Interaction ................................................................................................... 93 4.1.3 Final Model with Interaction ..................................................................... 94 4.2 QUESTION 1.1 .................................................................................................. 98 4.3 QUESTION 2 ..................................................................................................... 99 4.4 QUESTION 2.1 ...............................................................................................