this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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I was recently unable to find a particular journal article I wanted to read that was referenced in something else I was reading. I only could find an abstract on Google Scholar, and nothing at all on Z-lib. I was able to get a full copy by just emailing the author at her university (I guess its true that most of them will give you a PDF if you ask. they are just glad SOMEONE is actually reading their work). But now that I have it, I fell obligated to share it with the world, the question is, where is the best place to put it?

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Look at the PDF carefully before sharing it. Most academic publishers put a timestamp on it that reveals who downloaded it, at least at institution level. Sometimes this is even embedded as metadata. If the PDF says anywhere “author personal copy”, please don’t share it on the author’s behalf.

This is mostly to avoid getting them into trouble.

Otherwise, go and share, authors love it!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

@blah thanks for the heads up. I'll take a look and I'll edit if I need to.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I've never done it, but I though there was a way to upload docs to Z-lib

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Considering the version you were given by the author could be watermarked in some way, and they could get into shit from a publisher if you uploaded it for mass retrieval, you ought not to do this without their express permission. It's different if you had downloaded the article from a journal/database yourself, or if it was some other version (like an unformatted manuscript).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Would copying the text and uploading that get around it?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

It might be possible to embed that metadata in the target as well. If I were doing this I would copy and paste the text off into some editor that only supports raw text like notepad, then use screenshots of any images, then reassemble them into a "clean" version by hand. I would also probably not ever do this because that's a giant pain.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Potentially, I suppose. But then most people who want a pirated copy of an article are probably looking for something with at least the right pagination – makes citation easier. So it depends on how much effort you're willing to give to that endeavour haha. Anything is better than nothing in a pinch though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They can't get shit - you can. They're allowed to give it to people who ask. You're not allowed to upload it for mass retrieval.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

They're allowed to give it to people who ask.

I think that very much depends on what sort of article/chapter, what publisher, and what the nature of the copy the author has is (e.g. preprint, journal published version download, unpublished Word manuscript, etc.) It's hard to make any true generalisations here.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Research Gate exists for authors, though I don't think it would let you post others' work.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Check academia.edu

I have never used it, but seems like my uni is uploading there. Im getting emails when someone is reading my article

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@[email protected] if I recall correctly I had used that before, and it didn't seem legit. (Unlike Friendica, it appears blocked from my work VPN)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I was under the impression that who could get the .edu tld was restricted only to schools and other acredited educational institutions?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

You might want to get her permission before sharing it. She might be okay sharing it individually, but not publically.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you don't know anything about scientific publishing.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@RootBeerGuy @kia I know it costs a shit ton, and the only people who ever seem to read it are the other people quoting it, and its just as much bullshit as every other IP.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah it's not so much about cost in my eyes. The conferences I publish at are in the $500-$1000 range to attend once your paper gets accepted, not cheap but not too crazy, and grants take care of that cost anyways.

I was saying it'd be more of a curtousy for you to get permission before distributing.

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

Huh only 1k? Most IEEE and Scopus indexed confers and Open Access at 1,5K to 2,2K...😂

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Ah, yeah I just realized mine are also in that range. I forgot about the student discount.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago

@kia information is free, I don't need to ask permission, that's just giving them a chance to say NO

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There's a difference between distributing a huge corporation's work versus an individual researcher's paper...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah researchers want their life work known and journals just want $$$

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Is there an option to add to Z-lib?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Have you checked the author doesn't have it linked on her researchgate or lab website? As in, it might already be available, just not easily searchable.

[–] lavafroth 1 points 1 year ago

You can try contacting annas-archive.org