Gabriel J. Gardner is a librarian at California State University at Long Beach. He studies, among other things, the reasons that some scholars -- even those with access to scientific journals for which their colleges and universities have paid for subscriptions -- prefer shared papers, even when those papers have been pirated in violation of copyright laws.

Gardner has published papers on the topic and given presentations at meetings of academic librarians.

Thomas H. Allen, president of the Association of American Publishers, last month sent a letter to Gardner's boss at Cal State to complain about a presentation Gardner made on the research -- and that letter is now being shared online and being criticized by many librarians. Gardner and Cal State say that the letter distorts his research and implies that talking about such repositories of pirated papers as Sci-Hub is the same thing as endorsing them. And they say Allen is trying to intimidate librarians who are pushing for change in scholarly publishing.

In his letter, Allen said that Gardner, in a recent session at the American Library Association, "essentially" said of Sci-Hub, "Try it, you'll like it." Sci-Hub, Gardner noted, is under court orders not to continue its operations.

"Sci-Hub's methods are not benign," Allen wrote. "They include illegally accessing the secure computer networks of a large number of major universities by, among other methods, hijacking 'proxy' credentials used to facilitate off-campus remote access to university computer systems and databases. The techniques employed by it to defeat security standards are similar to those employed by other cyberintrusions," including those that protect the privacy of students' and researchers records.

Allen went on to say that he found it "surprising" that a Cal State librarian would "promote the activities of an adjudicated thief who has compromised university computer systems and databases worldwide." While some supporters of Sci-Hub "invoke academic freedom," Allen said, such arguments are nothing more than "rationalizations" to "justify the theft of intellectual property."

Via email, Gardner said that he never endorsed Sci-Hub or its methods, but that in discussing the site, he said it was easy to use. He said it's important for librarians to be aware of that fact.

"I believe the letter was an attempt at intimidation; my deans certainly interpreted it as such," Gardner said. "The pretext that the purpose of the letter was to educate us about the severity of intellectual property violations is laughable. Every librarian in the country knows that they shouldn’t advocate piracy, to do so is a clear violation of the American Library Association’s Code of Ethics."

Roman Kochan, dean of library services at Cal State Long Beach, has now issued his own letter, strongly defending Gardner and asking why the publishers' group is not doing more to help university libraries deal with journal costs.

Kochan -- citing a recording of the session -- noted that Gardner said Sci-Hub was engaged in "massive piracy" with "illegal" actions, and in no way endorsed Sci-Hub. He said that Allen's criticisms were "fundamental factual inaccuracies." Further, he said that Gardner's work was very much covered by academic freedom, and as such had the strong endorsement of Cal State Long Beach.

More broadly, in comments receiving praise on social media from librarians, Kochan took the publishing industry to task for not working with academic librarians to create more affordable models for the dissemination of scholarship.

"The larger issue here is that the academic publishing model has become unsustainable," Kochan wrote. "Like many university libraries, the library budgets at California State University at Long Beach and the California State University generally cannot sustain annual price increases of 3 percent to 10 percent by many of your organization's members. Journal subscription prices are a key part of the reason that extralegal services, such as Sci-Hub, flourish."

Allen and the spokeswoman for the Association of American Publishers did not respond over the weekend to email requests for comment.