I find it crazy that while clinical researchers & their teams put in the time, effort & tax-payer funded research money for conducting & publishing studies, the publishing organizations make huge profits out of it by simply existing – while not paying researchers much or anything at all and instead charging authors to submit and then also charging readers a fee to access the articles !
Organizations are now fighting back, like the University of California. Europe too is trying to free up access to research. A russian neuroscientist Alexandra Elbakyan took this particularly personally and she launched a now famous Sci-Hub service that unlocks almost any scientific journal article for free instantly. Since Sci-Hub links are often shut down, she houses them at different locations, one can simply google ‘Sci-Hub’ to get the latest link.
Here’s an example: This published report on a randomized clinical trial study about Vitamin D supplementation for migraine treatment listed on Pubmed sits behind a paywall on this publisher link. You simply copy-paste the ‘DOI’ listed on the pubmed link (10.1016/j.ajem.2021.07.062 in this case) in Sci-Hub, hit enter and this is the unlocked result !
Want to try an example yourself ? Here’s a meta-analysis about using probiotics to prevent Ventilator associated pneumonia sitting behind a paywall (if you are accessing within a institution paying for the access, it may not be behind a paywall for you). If it sits behind a paywall, copy the DOI URL you see on the article summary i.e . https://doi.org/10.1177/1060028020983021 and paste it onto the input box at Sci-Hub and click on Open ! Here’s the unlocked article using Sci-Hub !
The fight to free acess ain’t easy when you are up against publishers with deep pockets. They have successfully sued in some countried and banned it’s use, while I am waiting with great interest for the outcome of the lawsuit filed against Sc-Hub in India. Indian courts might possibly rule in favour for Sci-Hub based on it’s copyright law.
Likewise the site 12 ft ladder can unlock most paid news websites ! …but hey don’t quote me 😉
