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Access to academic research; by any means justified?

van Den Boom, Freyja LU (2018) RÄSM12 20181
Department of Sociology of Law
Abstract
The research questions that motivates this study are about the attitudes and practices of students, academic researchers and professors with respect to the file-sharing website Sci- Hub. Previous research on Sci-Hub and file-sharing has confirmed there is still a lack of understanding of Sci-Hub use and users and more insight is required to help solve the problem of illegal file sharing. This study consists of a small sample survey analysis of 129 students, professors and academic researchers collected through an online self-administered survey looking at Sci-Hub within the concept of norms. To date, very limited research on attitudes and Sci-Hub use, specifically amongst the academic community has been done. Although the results are not... (More)
The research questions that motivates this study are about the attitudes and practices of students, academic researchers and professors with respect to the file-sharing website Sci- Hub. Previous research on Sci-Hub and file-sharing has confirmed there is still a lack of understanding of Sci-Hub use and users and more insight is required to help solve the problem of illegal file sharing. This study consists of a small sample survey analysis of 129 students, professors and academic researchers collected through an online self-administered survey looking at Sci-Hub within the concept of norms. To date, very limited research on attitudes and Sci-Hub use, specifically amongst the academic community has been done. Although the results are not representative the study has been successful in providing valid insights on existing attitudes of academic users and non-users towards Sci-Hub. The results confirm that Sci-Hub users include students, professors and researchers, from different disciplines and countries including the UK and the US. Not having access to papers they need, is the main reason for using Sci-Hub, despite some having institutional access. Findings further indicate that Sci-Hub is not yet common or accepted within all academic communities. Based on the norm analysis of the results on attitudes and use practices the three essential attributes for norms could not be clearly identified for Sci-hub. Sci-Hub is not (yet) established as a norm contradicting copyright. These and other findings are discussed and proposals for further research are presented. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
van Den Boom, Freyja LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
Attitudes towards Sci-Hub
course
RÄSM12 20181
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Sci-Hub, file-sharing, piracy, concept of norm, sociology of law, academic publishing, Open Access, copyright
language
English
id
8940117
date added to LUP
2018-06-25 13:44:04
date last changed
2018-06-25 13:44:04
@misc{8940117,
  abstract     = {{The research questions that motivates this study are about the attitudes and practices of students, academic researchers and professors with respect to the file-sharing website Sci- Hub. Previous research on Sci-Hub and file-sharing has confirmed there is still a lack of understanding of Sci-Hub use and users and more insight is required to help solve the problem of illegal file sharing. This study consists of a small sample survey analysis of 129 students, professors and academic researchers collected through an online self-administered survey looking at Sci-Hub within the concept of norms. To date, very limited research on attitudes and Sci-Hub use, specifically amongst the academic community has been done. Although the results are not representative the study has been successful in providing valid insights on existing attitudes of academic users and non-users towards Sci-Hub. The results confirm that Sci-Hub users include students, professors and researchers, from different disciplines and countries including the UK and the US. Not having access to papers they need, is the main reason for using Sci-Hub, despite some having institutional access. Findings further indicate that Sci-Hub is not yet common or accepted within all academic communities. Based on the norm analysis of the results on attitudes and use practices the three essential attributes for norms could not be clearly identified for Sci-hub. Sci-Hub is not (yet) established as a norm contradicting copyright. These and other findings are discussed and proposals for further research are presented.}},
  author       = {{van Den Boom, Freyja}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Access to academic research; by any means justified?}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}