Mushroom Revival Podcast Sci-Hub: Freeing Science feat. Alexandra Elbakyan
Should knowledge be free? Alexandra Elbakyan, the founder of Sci-Hub, believes it should be. In an industry already riddled with obstacles, Sci-Hub is an essential tool for researchers that provides free access to millions of scientific articles. The platform is simple — unlock and download literature when these articles are otherwise blocked by paywalls, regardless of copyright. If it sounds like piracy to you, you'd be correct. However, just because something is illegal does not mean it is wrong. We are honored to welcome Alexandra onto the show to cover her important work.
Alexandra Elbakyan is a computer programmer from Kazakhstan. She created created Sci-Hub in 2011, a shadow library providing access to millions of scientific literature. She studied neuroscience, linguistics and computer programming in Moscow and has since dedicated her work to freeing science.
Topics covered:
- The origin of Sci-Hub, and how scientific literature adopted the current system of paywalls and copyright
- How the platform works and why it's to successful
- The relevance of Sci-Hub to citizen science and the mycology community
- Human rights, and the ethics of paying for knowledge
- How Sci-Hub users can support the project
- Open Access & Green Open Access
Show notes:
Sci-Hub: https://sci-hub.se/
Alexandra's profile: https://sci-hub.se/alexandra
Open access: https://guides.library.cornell.edu/openaccess
Other articles:
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6285/511.summary
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/whos-downloading-pirated-papers-everyone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PriwCi6SzLo
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