The hacker “Shrine” illegally retrieved, via the Sci-Hub site, more than 5,000 research documents on coronaviruses before making them available on the Reddit platform, free of charge, to help research, in particular scientists and caregivers from developing countries, often penalized by Paywalls.
Digital plays an important role in the fight against COVID-19, whether through provision of computing power of personal computers, or through the development of digital plotting. The hackers are then there … And sometimes for a good cause!
Coronavirus and war against Paywalls
The global COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim many lives around the world and forces us to review our lifestyles. On the research side, several avenues are being exploited and scientists are working hard to find a vaccine. However, despite the understaffing and the limited means at their disposal, not all of them work in total collaboration.
In question ? The Paywalls, in particular, these digital barriers that appear on websites to force you to subscribe, or to pay to read an article. Indeed, they also exist on scientific sites on which research results are published. A system that offers a profit margin of 35 to 40% for the main publishers.
Make research on coronaviruses accessible to all
According to the editors, the Paywall system allows above all to pay researchers and protect them from corruption: they can thus write on what excites them, and not on what sells best. However, these blockages are a source of great concern for researchers and carers in developing countries, who cannot access many scientific articles.
Also hackers, like Shrine, believe that the research documents on the coronaviruses that preceded COVID-19 should be freely accessible to the public. These documents contain valuable information that could help researchers around the world, and the fact that they are paid limits the capabilities of global scientific research.
Over 5,000 research documents on Reddit
Shrine therefore thought it ridiculous that this data was hidden behind Paywalls, knowing that taxpayers fund research. As a digital Robin Hood, he downloaded over 5,000 coronavirus research papers, published since 1968, via the controversial Sci-Hub website, and posted them for free on Reddit.
” I realized that there were people dying and that the mortality rate could be higher due to the lack of access to articles “
In parallel, the hacker launched an appeal to publishing houses, through a petition. He calls for the deletion of Paywalls that limit research on COVID-19. In response, publishers have released more than 32,000 coronavirus research documents, while only a few thousand were previously open access.
Source: FreeThink
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