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Sci-Hub

Sci-Hub
Official logo of Sci-Hub depicting black raven drawing with reddish key in mouth
Type of site
File sharing
Available in
  • English
  • Chinese
  • Russian
  • Portuguese
Founded5 September 2011 (2011-09-05)[1]
OwnerAlexandra Elbakyan[1][2]
URL
CommercialNo
RegistrationNone
Launched5 September 2011 (2011-09-05)[3]
Current statusActive
Content license
Hosts material without regard to copyright
Part of a series on
File sharing
Technologies
Video on demand sites
BitTorrent sites
Academic/scholarly
File sharing networks
P2P clients
Streaming programs
Anonymous file sharing
Development and societal aspects
By country or region
Comparisons

Sci-Hub is a shadow library website that provides free access to millions of research papers, regardless of copyright,[4] by bypassing publishers' paywalls in various ways.[2][4][5][6] Unlike Library Genesis, it does not provide access to books. Sci-Hub was founded in Kazakhstan by Alexandra Elbakyan in 2011, in response to the high cost of research papers behind paywalls (see Serials crisis). The site is extensively used worldwide.[4][5] In September 2019, the site's operator(s) said that it served approximately 400,000 requests per day.[7] In addition to its intensive use, Sci-Hub stands out among other shadow libraries because of its easy use/reliability and because of the enormous size of its collection; a 2018 study estimated that Sci-Hub provided access to most of the scholarly publications with issued DOI numbers.[4] On 15 July 2022, Sci-Hub reported that its collection comprised 88,343,822 files.[8] Since December 2020, the site has paused uploads due to legal troubles.[9]

Sci-Hub and Elbakyan were sued twice for copyright infringement in the United States, in 2015 and 2017, and lost both cases by default, leading to loss of some of its Internet domain names.[10] The site has cycled through different domain names since then.[4][a]

Sci-Hub has been praised by some in the scientific, academic, and publishing communities[11][12] for providing access to knowledge generated by the scientific community, which is usually funded by taxpayers (government grants) and with zero royalties paid to the authors.[13] Publishers have criticized it for violating copyright,[5][14] reducing the revenue of publishers,[15] and potentially being linked to activities compromising universities' network security, though the cybersecurity threat posed by Sci-Hub may have been exaggerated by publishers.[16][17]

Elbakyan questioned the morality of the publishers' business and the legality of their methods in regards to the right to science and culture under Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, while maintaining that Sci-Hub should be "perfectly legal".[18][19][20] Many Sci-Hub users see Sci-Hub as a moral imperative, and if the operation of Sci-Hub contradicts the law, it is the law that should be changed rather than banning Sci-Hub.[21]

  1. ^ a b "Alexandra Elbakyan | Sci-Hub". Sci-Hub. Archived from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Segado-Boj-2022-12 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Matthew Gault (8 September 2021). "The 'Pirate Bay of Science' Adds 2 Million New Journal Articles". Motherboard. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e Himmelstein, Daniel S; Romero, Ariel Rodriguez; Levernier, Jacob G; Munro, Thomas Anthony; McLaughlin, Stephen Reid; Greshake Tzovaras, Bastian; Greene, Casey S (1 March 2018). "Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature". eLife. 7. doi:10.7554/eLife.32822. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 5832410. PMID 29424689.
  5. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Bohannon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Elbakyan2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Sci-Hub отметил восьмилетие". Roskomsvoboda.org. 6 September 2019. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  8. ^ Sci-Hub Official website: About. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  9. ^ "Announcement: Sci-Hub has been paused, NO NEW ARTICLES will be downloadable via Sci-Hub until further notice". 20 February 2021.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chawla was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference WaPo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference :7 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ "Scientific publishing is a rip-off. We fund the research – it should be free | George Monbiot". TheGuardian.com. 13 September 2018. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference shadowill was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ "Sci-Hub 'security risk' claims irk open access advocates". Times Higher Education (THE). 6 November 2020. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference RussellSanchez was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Newtonew2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Quirin Schiermeier (7 November 2017). "Pirate paper website Sci-Hub dealt another blow by US courts". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2017.22971. Archived from the original on 19 December 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  21. ^ Anderson, Rick (30 April 2018). "Is Copyright Piracy Morally Wrong or Merely Illegal? The Malum Prohibitum/Malum in Se Conundrum". The Scholarly Kitchen. Archived from the original on 15 May 2024. Retrieved 15 May 2024.


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