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In brief: A summary of this month’s interview with Alexandra Elbakyan the beleaguered founder of the Sci-Hub website that provides academic papers for free in defiance of the 25 billion dollar a year academic publishing industry. [This article first appeared on LongevityFacts. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

In an undisclosed location in Kazakhstan sits a server hosting Sci-Hub, a website with more than 64 million academic papers available for free to anybody in the world.

Often called the Pirate Bay of science, Sci-Hub is skippered by Alexandra Elbakyan, a young computer programmer, and student. Ms. Elbakyan spoke with The Verge earlier this month about her struggle with the $25 billion a year academic publishing establishment.

Sci-hub was sued by Elsevier who won and was awarded $15 million in June of 2017. Publishing giant American Chemical Society also filed suit and was awarded $4.8 million in November.

Despite these verdicts, Elkbakyan says she has no plans to scuttle Sci-Hub. Instead, she has battened down the hatches and has managed to keep Sci-Hub running at full sail, albeit on a zig-zag course, sailing one tack ahead of the mighty publishing industry who is trying to shut her down. Elbakyan tells The Verge that she plans to continue with business as usual, saying

“If nothing happens to me personally, then naturally I will try to continue Sci-Hub project myself,”

The Mighty Academic Publishing Fleet

The academic publishing business is dominated by four giants: Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer, and Taylor & Francis. Academic publishers enjoy very high profit margins because they don’t pay for the articles that they publish, own the copyright and typically charge steep prices for subscriptions. To cap it off, most of the research work that they publish is government or charity funded.

Elsevier, the world’s largest academic publisher, is leading the charge against Ms. Elkbakyan. Publishing giant Elsevier is also embroiled in controversy, and more than 16,000 researchers have vowed to boycott the publisher for charging “exorbitantly high prices” and bundling expensive, unwanted journals with essential publications, a practice that allegedly is bankrupting university libraries. Elsevier is perhaps the most notorious for delivering takedown notices to academics, reports BigThink, demanding that the authors take their own research articles published with Elsevier off free websites like Academia.edu.

The Captain of Sci-Hub

Ms. Elbakyan doesn’t seem to be in the piracy business for the promise of swag or other booty and funds her website entirely with donations. An independent study estimated that Sci-Hub had only $268,000 in its treasure chest as of August 2017. Rather than a pirate in search of plunder, others liken Ms. Elbakyan to a modern-day Robin Hood, calling her the “Robin Hood of science. ”

Elkbayan says she maintains the website to provide free access to research papers to needy students who can’t afford the subscription fees. In 2011, she first started what would eventually become Sci-Hub to obtain research papers for her studies that should not afford. Since then, the website has blossomed, with Sci-Hub getting 200,000 hits a day. She has kept it running, despite sailing through rough seas.

Ian Graber-Stiehl caught up with Ms. Elbakyan in an article published on Feb 8 in the Verge. Speaking to the owner of Sci-Hub at an undisclosed location, The Verge reports that

“None of these U.S. judgements seem to deter Elkbakyan, who lives outside the US, and can’t be compelled to pay. More troubling is the publishers obtained court orders to have her website shut down. Since then, Elkbakyan has been playing cat and mouse with those trying to take her website down.”

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References

Cover Photo: Model portraying surreptitious computer programmer. Credit: Viktorcvetkovic/Getty Images.

Ian Graber-Stiehl. “SCIENCE’S PIRATE QUEEN.” The Verge. Feb 8, 2018. Link to article in The Verge.

“EXCLUSIVE: Robin Hood neuroscientist behind Sci-Hub research-pirate site talks to RT.” rt.com. 14 February 2016. Link to article in rt.com.

Simon Oxenham. “Meet the Robin Hood of Science.” Big Think. The Big Think, Inc. 10 February 2016. Link to article in BigThink.

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