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All Knowledge Should Be Free!!!

Have I said how much I LOVE SCI-HUB? Not this month so let me say it again: I LOVE SCI-HUB!! If you don't know what Sci-Hub is, and you are interested in access to knowledge/science, then it's time you learned. SciHub is a service started by Kazakhstani graduate student, computer programmer and open-science/knowledge advocate Alexandra Elbakyan. Remember Aaron Swartz? Well, he died as a result of his efforts to free up knowledge and scientific research. In many ways we can think of Elbakyan as having picked up the reins of this fight for open/free knowledge after we lost Aaron.

The short version of what SciHub is all about, is that it is an online database of somewhere around 70%-80% of the published science/research which is usually locked behind a paywall. Ironically (and unethically), in many cases this science/research LOCKED BEHIND a PAYWALL is often PUBLICLY FUNDED RESEARCH. But major publishers (with Elsevier being the most evil) have effectively "reduced knowledge to a commodity" by locking scientific research behind paywalls. This makes it difficult for students doing research, or for the knowledge in the research from being publicly shared and available to anyone. Especially those doing research which may benefit or be supplemented by, additional science. Science and the greater public good, INCREASES when knowledge is available to everyone. Locking knowledge behind paywalls inhibits the growth of science and knowledge and may even hold back discoveries which could significantly benefit all of mankind. Knowledge should ALWAY BE FREE and so I am forever grateful to Alexandra Elbakyan for keeping Aaron Swartz's effort alive and to help make knowledge/science freely available to everyone.

"The SciHub database contains 85% of all papers published in paywalled journals, including 97% of all papers in Elsevier’s database. There has been no precedent for this kind of access in the history of scientific enterprise."

"...the OA movement is growing and that each year, a greater share of the world’s knowledge is openly accessible."

“The idea is to stop thinking of knowledge as a commodity to meter out to deserving customers, and to start thinking of it as a public good, especially when it is given away by its authors, funded with public money, or both.”

 never call anyone struggling with poverty lazy, complacent, or ignorant!

 SOURCE: JOHNNY STORK
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