Shadow Libraries: Access to Knowledge in Global Higher Education

Karaganis, Joe

doi:10.21428/cb6ab371.76ae82bb

Cited by 11 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Whilst pirate/shadow libraries, trying to avoid exposure and prosecution, on the whole prefer to operate under the radar, Sci-Hub takes the opposite stance (Bod o, 2016). Founded in 2011 by Alexandra Elbakyan, Sci-Hub openly proclaims that its services, intended to enable universal OA to knowledge, only put right the untenable, unethical and harmful situation of publishers' hiding articles behind paywalls (Bod o, 2016;Karaganis et al, 2018).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outside the library: Early career researchers and use of alternative information sources in pandemic times

et al. 2023

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Presents findings from a study into the attitudes and practices of pandemic‐era early career researchers (ECRs) in regard to obtaining access to the formally published scholarly literature, which focused on alternative providers, notably ResearchGate and Sci‐Hub. The study is a part of the Harbingers project that has been exploring the work lives and scholarly communication practices of ECRs in pre‐pandemic times and during the pandemic, and utilizes data from two rounds of interviews with around 170 ECRs from the sciences and social sciences in eight countries. Findings show that alternative providers, as represented by ResearchGate and Sci‐Hub, have become established and appear to be gaining ground. However, there are considerable country‐ and discipline‐associated differences. ECRs' country‐specific level of usage of the alternative providers is partly traceable to the adequacy of library provisions, although there are other factors at play in shaping ECRs' attitudes and practices, most notably convenience and time saving, as well as the fact that these platforms have become embedded in the scholarly dashboard. There is a dearth of evidence of the impact of the pandemic on ECRs' ways of obtaining scholarly papers.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outside the library: Early career researchers and use of alternative information sources in pandemic times

et al. 2023

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“…Sci-Hub has been labelled in different ways, depending on the point of view adopted: pirate OA, black OA 15,16 , illegal OA, shadow library 8,10,17 , 'rogue' OA or 'Robin Hood' OA 1 , guerrilla OA (term used by hacktivist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz). The term varies depending on whether the emphasis is placed on infringing copyright or the act of civil disobedience 18 .…”

Section: Authors Version Cc-by-nc-ndmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the existing literature, we still lack concrete data to know how these kinds of tools affect the profits made by publishers and whether they influence in some way the use of libraries and the reduction of services such as inter-library loans 10 . Most empirical studies on Sci-Hub have been based on data published by Bohannon in 2016 [11][12][13]13,14 .Sci-Hub has been labelled in different ways, depending on the point of view adopted: pirate OA, black OA 15,16 , illegal OA, shadow library 8,10,17 , 'rogue' OA or 'Robin Hood' OA 1 , guerrilla OA (term used by hacktivist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz). The term varies depending on whether the emphasis is placed on infringing copyright or the act of civil disobedience 18 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sci-Hub use among Spanish researchers: Enemy or a learning opportunity for libraries?

Pastor-Ramón¹,

Aguirre

García‐Puente

et al. 2023

Journal of Information Science

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Access to scientific literature is the cornerstone of scientific knowledge and numerous scientific-technical and social advances. However, in 2018, major difficulties in accessing the scientific literature have been reported. Despite Open Access has made more than 50% of scientific literature accessible without paywalls, during this year’s access to pirate scientific resources, such as Sci-Hub, has increased. It is one of the most popular resources among researchers and university students. The key aspect is to differentiate between these kinds of resources (black open access or shadow library) and the Open Access movement. Black open access violates copyright regulations, and Open Access wants to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited. We conducted a questionnaire with 17 items about the use of Sci-Hub among Spanish-speaking sciences and social sciences researchers. Libraries must learn from these kinds of resources how to improve the access to their scientific resources, and propose to the editors a different way of business, more similar to Spotify or Netflix than the journal bundles offered nowadays, usually with numerous journals with an embargo period or no relevance to the scientific community.

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“…Shadow libraries are large illicit repositories of text. Websites such as Sci-Hub and Libgen are among the largest of the shadow libraries, containing tens of millions of academic articles and books (Karaganis, 2018). Their message is one of resistance: against a publishing oligopoly (Larivi ere et al, 2015), and for the free dissemination of information and knowledge to those in need, beyond paywalls.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gamifying piracy: functions and users of the Z-library

Kjellström

2022

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PurposeThis paper aims to show how an illegal repository of literature, the Z-library, relates to and influences its users and how this relation is unique due to the illegal nature of the platform. The paper utilizes the idea of gamification to exemplify how to motivate users to contribute to a large shadow library in order to create the “world's largest e-book library,” sans “librarians.”Design/methodology/approachThe study makes use of an ethnographic approach. It interrogates the functions of the website through intensive use—a close reading of sorts. The data provide a foundation for illustrating how illegal text repositories function at a surface level and how their design appeals to their user-base.FindingsThe paper provides a thorough and non-biased overview of how a “black open access” or “shadow library” site provides its users with pirated literature. It suggests that the lynchpin sustaining their functionality is a gamification of piracy designed to motivate a fragmented collective of individuals who work primarily for personal reward, rather than altruistic goals.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the design of the study, the findings are not universal or applicable to all illegal repositories of text. Readers and researchers are encouraged to apply the concept introduced here to other cases.Social implicationsThis paper includes implication on the perception of literature piracy, how pirated literature is distributed and who performs the labor required to sustain illicit text repositories.Originality/valueThis paper provides a novel conceptual basis to study literature piracy.

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Shadow Libraries: Access to Knowledge in Global Higher Education

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Outside the library: Early career researchers and use of alternative information sources in pandemic times

Outside the library: Early career researchers and use of alternative information sources in pandemic times

Sci-Hub use among Spanish researchers: Enemy or a learning opportunity for libraries?

Gamifying piracy: functions and users of the Z-library

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