Sunday, May 1, 2016

Hmm, Kazakhstan is a hub of world science?

Not likely despite the presence of Baikonur [Космодро́м «Байкону́р»] in the hinterland and numerous academies in Almaty around 142 Kunayev street and the pleasant (now) National Academy of Sciences buildings, and surrounding posh apartments.
That Sci-hub was initiated there is a common miracle in the third world (or in this case the Second World of ex-Soviet times).

Few can afford all the journals being published, and new ones being spun-off/created holus-bolus every year.

<blockquote>The observation that sci-hub is being heavily used also in universities which have decent access to the literature demonstrates two points which are not mutually exclusive:

  1. Even at rich institutions, access is still an issue.
  2. Sci-hub is more efficient than what the institutional infrastructure offers.
Both insights entail that sci-hub fills a need researchers have. I would tend to go out on a limb and prognosticate that it is rather unlikely that simply asking researchers to forgo that need because AAAS needs money to pay Dr. McNutt will have much of an effect on the behavior of said researchers.
 </blockquote>

http://bjoern.brembs.net/2016/04/in-which-a-science-editorial-demonstrates-the-inefficiency-of-oa-activism/