

Academic papers are hidden from the public. Here's some direct action. - ColinWright
http://www.badscience.net/2011/09/academic-papers-are-hidden-from-the-public-heres-some-direct-action/

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mechanical_fish
The problem of publicly-funded-but-privately-owned scientific research is a
pet peeve of mine, but this guerilla action is not the answer. Scientific
research is a slow process of careful accumulation, sifting, and construction
of links. What we need to build are permanent, publicly accessible webs built
of reliable links, webs that are built up over years -- probably over the
course of entire careers, and one's _successors's_ careers. Not a pile of PDF
files smuggled out of the academy and distributed via thumb drive and
anonymous Bittorrent.

If I cannot simultaneously post my name, a pertinent comment, _and_ a bunch of
reliable direct links to the scientific literature on a public blog without
risking legal repercussions, the discourse is still screwed. We're still
trapped in the last century, when I could write a letter to my colleagues
commenting on recent publications but nobody could properly understand and
critique the letter without independently looking up those publications.

~~~
dpres
Sounds like your describing WikiPedia...

~~~
granite_scones
Not really. This is about being able to access the specific papers written; it
is not about being able to read an aggregate of the research without
necessarily being able to look at the original source (which is what Wikipedia
is).

(EDIT: grammar)

~~~
mechanical_fish
Indeed, Wikipedia's particular style won't work for science.

The shame of modern science is that what _might_ work is so simple to build,
because it is already built. Research papers already form a web: They all have
references to prior research papers, which in turn have references of their
own. Moreover, the community of researchers and their students would quickly
and happily turn all those links into clickable ones -- if only paywalls
didn't prevent them. [1]

It's no coincidence that even the simplest of web pages is already perfectly
suited for scientific research: Tim Berners-Lee _built HTML and HTTP for that
purpose_. But now science lags behind, say, LOLcats or the _Twilight_ books
when it comes to online discussion, and I assert that it's not merely because
science is esoteric [2]: It's because scientific publishing is suffocated by
rent-seekers.

\---

[1] Actually, my understanding is that cross-journal hyperlinks are slowly
evolving _within_ academia: Once you're inside the university library's
firewall you can make actual working hyperlinks that are only, say, 65% less
efficient than the average Wikipedia link. This is great for those who are
currently inside the ivory tower. Not so great for me and the other 99.9% of
humanity.

[2] What I wonder is the extent to which science remains esoteric _because_ it
has always required so much training and money to read the literature that the
literature has never needed to evolve actual readability. Why bother learning
to explain your work to a popular audience when your writing will only ever
appear in journals that are only visible to your colleagues?

Historically, we've relied on great science journalism to make up the
difference. (Gods bless you, Isaac Asimov.) But great science journalism, like
all journalism, is rare and getting rarer.

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gammarator
Without justifying any of this, since the Schwartz incident JSTOR has made all
of the out-of-copyright content freely available:
[http://about.jstor.org/participate-
jstor/individuals/early-j...](http://about.jstor.org/participate-
jstor/individuals/early-journal-content)

~~~
brador
Would JSTOR have released these had the Schwartz action not occured? I suggest
not. Does this then justify his actions? I don't know, but his actions have
certainly proven advantageous to scientific study and breaking of the anti-
science monopoly.

~~~
glimcat
There are bigger crimes than breaching a paywall. It's not hard to see an
argument for downloading as civil disobedience in this case.

------
Mizza
Academic lectures are hidden from the public. Here's some direct action:
<http://lectureleaks.com>

~~~
St-Clock
I am STRONGLY against this kind of service and I hope you will consider
removing any recording that was not approved by the lecturer.

Otherwise, I want a recording of everything you have said while working.
Actually, I want a recording of everything everybody said while they were
working so my BigBrother TM audio processing technology can highlight anything
that was out of line, incorrect, inappropriate, whatever.

I hope you understand that most lecturers/profs/researchers/people aren't
concerned about their copyrights. They are concerned about their reputation
and about what ill intentioned school administrators, students or politicians
could do with these recordings. You just need one bad case of misuse of these
recordings before some universities or unions sue the hell out of you.

I share your goal: education is good and the more people learn, the better the
world will become. But if you start recording everything I say in my lectures,
I promise you that they will be way more boring.

~~~
zootar
Are there any known instances of a lecture recording being used against an
instructor unfairly?

I doubt doing things that could be construed as "out of line, incorrect,
inappropriate, whatever" really improve your lectures in a significant and
sustainable way. In any case, there are better ways to be interesting and
entertaining [1].

I think everyone understand that instructors aren't concerned about
copyrights. They're concerned about having to improve the quality of their
lectures, or have a permanent record of lectures they're not really proud of.

[1] Richard Buckland, UNSW: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bLCjMA0YlE>

~~~
St-Clock
"I think everyone understand that instructors aren't concerned about
copyrights."

Well if you click on the "about" link on lectureleaks.com, you'll see that
they only talk about copyrights. They do not seem to care about anything
else... Incidentally, they have quite a lengthy copyright and license notice
themselves... Maybe I should write one for my course.

"Are there any known instances of a lecture recording being used against an
instructor unfairly?"

If you asked me whether instructors were sometimes treated unfairly by
students, administrators or politicians, I would say yes. Having access to
recorded lectures just adds a new angle of attack.

"I doubt doing things that could be construed as "out of line, incorrect,
inappropriate, whatever" really improve your lectures in a significant and
sustainable way."

I was actually referring to some ill intentioned people who would turn a joke,
a simple mistake you made, or a controversial topic you taught against you.
For example, teaching evolution is a risky business in some US states.

------
Caligula
One of the tremendous values of being in a masters program is having access to
JSTOR and all the other journal sources.

Before I would email the professor and request a copy, usually they would
oblige.

~~~
brianobush
Or you can go visit your local library, which has access typically to most
journals in digital form.

~~~
pwaring
Depends which country you are in - UK libraries don't usually have access to
academic journals.

~~~
burgerbrain
How about local university libraries then?

~~~
pwaring
They are generally not open to the public, and when they are you are rarely
allowed to access electronic journals because of the licence agreement which
the university has signed with the publisher.

------
NatW
90% of the 8 billion dollar world-wide market for academic research is paid
for by library subscriptions. There is a serious problem here, indeed. Some
excellent facts and recommendations were posted in this report. It was written
by the Association of American Universities (61 leading research universities)
in January, 2010 and it was initiated by the U.S. House’s Science and
Technology Committee in conjunction with the White House’s Office of Science
and Technology Policy (OSTP):
<http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=10044>

------
aba_sababa
Sigh. I really wish the media would start covering things like this. Imagine
the nation panicking over caged science - no publisher would be able to
withstand the onslaught. Instead, we're stuck with reality show politics.

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akarambir
Atleast they should reduce the time after which a journal/research paper
becomes out-of-copyright. As is with the patents. And then they can searched
freely.

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misuba
Obviously full-on, unthrottled downloads are going to get blocked. Why can't
activists ever be sneaky?

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tahu
you can also do direct action by signing a petition at
<http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/16041>

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NY_Entrepreneur
"Direct action" to find "hidden" papers? Visit a university library. Done.

~~~
rmc
Only works if you're a student there, they are no usually open to the public.

~~~
aheilbut
In the US and Canada, at least, they usually are open to the public.

~~~
metageek
I don't know about that. Thinking about the four universities I've got
experience with, the only one that didn't have someone checking IDs at the
door of the library was the small one that probably couldn't afford it.

~~~
aheilbut
In my experience, in Boston, nobody will bat an eye if you go into most
libraries at MIT (so long as you don't go breaking into wiring closets) or BU.
Harvard is very restrictive because it'd probably be overrun with tourists
otherwise. I think libraries in big cities (NYC) tend to be more exclusive, to
keep out the riff-raff and homeless people, but such cities usually have good
public research libraries.

In Toronto, the the UofT libraries are accessible to anybody. However, I did
once get kicked out of the Law Society of Upper Canada library when I mixed up
Osgoode Hall with the Osgoode Hall law school when I was doing research for a
high school class, and I'm still bitter about that.

~~~
metageek
So maybe the overall answer is that whether a school has people checking IDs
depends less on rational decisions and more on their history—have they had
trouble, have they had paranoid management, that sort of thing.

