this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024

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Science Memes

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submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 203 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This isn't a meme, it's a crime

[–] [email protected] 64 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

There are literally tens of thousands of people in academia who could build a transparent, open-source, non-profit publishing system of their own.

Why don't they?

[–] [email protected] 86 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There is a transitioning happening but progress churns slowly. I like to compare it to getting out of an abusive relationship.

https://sparcopen.org/our-work/big-deal-knowledge-base/unbundling-profiles/mit-libraries/

https://tagteam.harvard.edu/hubs/oatp/items

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

It's happening in Germany as well. Universities are banding together to negotiate better deals with publishers - some subscriptions haven't been renewed when the publishers weren't forthcoming. It's not a solution (that would be the wide establishment of independent, self organized/hosted Open Access journals - using Open Journal Systems for example) but it's a start.

https://deal-konsortium.de/en/

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Corruption - at the highest level.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago

Well I don't know about "highest" level.

It's in some ways worse than that. it's institutional corruption and collusion across all levels of power within institutions. Not having access to pear review, journals, the gravitas, the funding sources:it creates a monopoly of power for all players in the system where they aren't benefited by opening up access

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (6 children)

I don't know about other fields, but we did do this for AI. It's all community-run, papers are freely available for everyone to read, and the cost of submission in a peer-reviewed venue is to review other papers. The publishers don't actually provide anything of value except name recognition and being "reputable", which they maintain through momentum.

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[–] [email protected] 186 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Remember folks, if you pirate scientific papers you're stealing from the hard working......wait a minute....

[–] [email protected] 67 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You wouldn't download a car

[–] [email protected] 69 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I would, actually

[–] [email protected] 41 points 3 months ago

I'd 3D print that shit so hard on my shitty little Ender.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

Why stop at one?

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[–] [email protected] 153 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Academic Authors: $0

FAKE NEWS

This should be in the negatives. We have to pay to get papers published in these traditional journals.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And sometimes open access costs money for the author too.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Don't forget the university libraries. Yup, researchers are paid by the university, those researchers pay the publishers to place their articles, the peer reviewers are also paid by the university. And then the university has to shell out money to the publishers, so the articles can be accessed.

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[–] [email protected] 96 points 3 months ago (4 children)

and don't use Sci-hub people. I am warning ⚠️ you so you can avoid it 🫡

[–] [email protected] 64 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Thank you for the warning. I almost received free and convenient access to a large catalog of academic articles, and no one wants that.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago

I, too have seen the ability of Sci-Hub to give me free access to research papers.

It's terrifying how easy it is to get access to scientific literature for free! Wouldn't recommend to anyone.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Annas Archives

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

Came here to post this. It's so evil, it even has ebooks meant for entertainment.

Never visit downmagaz either!

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

dont ever use this, it has almost everything

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 3 months ago (3 children)

but wait...

where meme part ?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago

Internet memes come from the original concept of memes as an element of culture passed on from person to person.

From Wikipedia's "internet meme" article.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 3 months ago (2 children)

New textbooks have disappearing ink that only lasts, about one semester, until a month before finals, and then in that month they trigger dynamic pricing increases due to a stronger than typical demand...

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago

Don't give them ideas.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

Don't give them ideas for free.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 3 months ago (2 children)

NGL if I was a college professor in this situation I'd be pirating my own work fuck these guys

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Very frequently you can email the author of the paper and they will be super happy to send you a copy.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago

I do it all the time. Something something sci-hub. If you ask, the authors will almost always share a preprint.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Just like the Olympics. The companies are vampire squids.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago

That's unfair to both vampires and squids

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

vampire squid makes them sound cute, they are literally the scum of the earth: They are leeching billions from what is normally a tax funded sector and on the side heavily polarising publishing and access to science in favor of rich countries.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I too want to open a business where both customers and suppliers pay me. Do you know any more gullible sectors? Academics are pretty extorted already it seems.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

Real estate seems to be a popular place for seemingly unnecessary middlemen.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 months ago

Just here to say fuck Elsevier.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Or, publish to PLOS ONE, the open-access science journal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLOS_One

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (2 children)

As of April 2021, PLOS One charges a publication fee of $1,745 to publish an article.

I mean, seriously, I would like to publish to one of these, but who has the money to do that?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Thanks, I did not know that fee was added.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There are many other open-access journals, for example these: https://freejournals.org/. But yes, open-access is the way.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Reviewers and writers actually do get a stipend, but it's a token amount like 200 bucks a year. This industry is the most ass backward incentive structure we could possibly create, the only reason writers would provide articles to a journal is literally for the clout.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Really? I’ve reviewed and published a good chunk of papers and never received any financial compensation.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I've never gotten a stipend or heard of someone getting a stipend for publishing or reviewing manuscripts. The only thing I've been offered is access to the journal.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

That's not an incentive, they're mocking you with money

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And they wonder why...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

TIL: In the PotC universe, The legs of the pier are noclip underwater.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago (3 children)

As much as I'm against parasitic practices, I wonder how the inevitable corruption of money would (further) skew research if academia was well paid for their papers.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

We're not saying pay the authors a bunch, we're saying make the papers free to read. Or at least don't charge authors and readers both, while keeping all the money for yourself.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago

That seems like a very lucrative market to interrupt

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Why are we looking at revenue? We don't know the operating costs. What are the profit margins?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

According to Wikipedia, in 2022 Elsevier's revenue was 2.909 billion pounds and their net income was 2.021 billion pounds.

Not going to bother looking up the rest.

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