@EposVox As an addendum to this: most authors are not only genuinely delighted to share their work with you if you request it, some are even moreso delighted to talk to you about it and answer questions!

Especially if they have additional knowledge or information worth sharing that they didn't include in the original paper!

@EposVox such an excellent point I could always email the author for the 📜🗞️

@EposVox sci-hub and arxiv do the rest

@EposVox don't most people use sci hub?

@EposVox decentralized white papers and peer review is a very valid web3 use case

@EposVox As the author or co-author of various scientific papers: don’t I know it. AND, you have to pay them a publishing fee if they accept your paper AND the scientists who review the papers (which I have also done) are also unpaid. Huge racket.

@EposVox
I just learned something new. Thank you!

@EposVox All the more reason to look for diamond #openaccess journals to publish with, like most journals with library publishers. Check out https://doaj.org for those and more.

@EposVox I've full on blocked news sites on my home network before because they insisted on making me pay to read it. Now they've lost the money AND the traffic as a result

@EposVox authors even have to pay to have their paper published

in most cases their institution pays the publication fee or it is considered in grant proposals

but still it's money that could be spent on personnel or materials

@EposVox Or just pirate them!

@EposVox Wait, what even is the purpose of these journals in the age of the internet?

Are you seriously paying to have a PDF put on a website?

@EposVox yes. Authors pay the publishers to get their papers published and readers pay the publishers to read

@EposVox Great!

@EposVox @danielrbradley 😱😳

@EposVox oh, wow! I really wish I had known this. I frequently have to search out "alternative sources" for papers. Just asking the author sounds better for everyone!

@EposVox: The relevant hashtag, once popularised on the bird site that's now pining for the fjords, is #ICanHazPDF.

A question was asked elsewhere:

> What's something that seems obvious within your profession, but the general public seems to misunderstand?

@EposVox re-tooted one interesting answer to this. Thanks! See this post's thread.

For my own answer:

New mathematics is being created all the time.

(I was a research Mathematician some time ago and loved it.)

@EposVox *This* I genuinely did not know.

@EposVox I used ask for papers all the time back when I was more active in the "science fandom". I never got a no, though there were times when I heard nothing back, but that may have been just being busy or not keeping up with email well.

@EposVox Not to mention that authors generally have to pay the publisher as well, while peer reviewers work as volunteers without getting paid.

@EposVox It is upsetting that ResearchGate demands university affiliation, since that is the easiest way to email researchers with these requests.

@EposVox

And for quite a few fields there is https://arxiv.org!

@mmu_man

@EposVox To be fair publishing is a lot of work, and includes copy editing and other things that do add value. I have family that works in publishing and some articles need tons of polish. They also pay for hosting for open access articles which any author can opt-in to (for an added fee sometimes)

@EposVox also using SciHub is good and should be permitted for everyone...
Free knowledge for all!

@EposVox Also, sci-hub.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub

@EposVox and we do. Sometimes the authors never respond to emails. As a self employed, independent researcher it’s a challenge digging sometime.

@EposVox It's nice that most scholars do feel this way, but it's still not a real solution. What if I'm a vocal critic of someone's work. Would they be so delighted to send me their papers then? What if the author is on sabbatical, sick, or dead?

@EposVox I never even considered this. There are so many papers I never read because they were behind a paywall that was unaffordable for a school paper. But I always thought the authors were paid from those fees, not that all of it went to the publisher. Do they get compensated at all for publishing?

@EposVox Does this include curious laypeople who have nothing to offer in terms of exposure? I hit a lot of paywalls trying to read papers just out of curiosity :(

@EposVox I love to share my work & know others are interested in it!

@EposVox I'm no academic, but from what I read, academic publishing is a huge scam. From how they review them to access, to even getting published. All the money seems to flow to a single point.

@EposVox also good networking

@EposVox Don't think you need to be part of academia either. I, an interested lay person, have asked for and received papers on numerous occasions.

@EposVox Can confirm. I've done this a few times and have never been turned down.

@EposVox Love this! New standard operating procedure for me.

@EposVox I've heard this information before, but how would you suggest wording that you want access to the paper? I know it doesn't need to be 100% professional, but a teensy guide would help for my times of deep research

@EposVox I knew about the authors not getting a penny but didn't realise that the authors would be happy to provide a free copy.

@EposVox I did this when I needed an article for my MA thesis. My uni didn't have access, friends at different unis had the same problem...

Didn't know this was allowed, so I felt bad about approaching the author directly, but sent him a polite email, explaining the situation.

Received a very charming reply within hours, PDF of what I needed attached, he even expressed interest in my thesis topic.

#Teachers, #researchers are amazing and they work way too hard

@EposVox And you get to email cool people. So win/win.

@EposVox this needs to@be known

@EposVox Find them on https://www.researchgate.net/ and you can send a request directly to the author.

@EposVox There is no greater scam in the world than academic publishing. These companies are certified bottom-feeders.

@EposVox my phd supervisor told me it was rude to email an author directly. Plus it shows that you work at a bad university because apparently it could not afford a subscription.
He is a psychology professor now. That guy was so dumb and socially awkward.
Had so many delightful email conversations based on asking for papers! It is a good advice!

@EposVox when I was young researchers used to publish unedited draft on their website.

@EposVox This was, of course, entirely standard practice until about 20 years ago, when something happened, and it almost fell out of use entirely. What happened? I'm not really sure, despite having worked in the sector.

@EposVox Who pays for the peer review process?

@EposVox 🙏thank you for this

@EposVox even better, just put the PDFs on your website and let google scholar scrape them

@EposVox I did once find a paper made by someone from the uni I attend to, maybe even the same association, but it was over 20 years old so they had already left, probably bo one remember them. The trace stopped there as the name was too generic to track down. I may continue later, but it's not urgent.

@EposVox 🤯

@EposVox oh fascinating!

@EposVox can attest! When I was a student, I did this several times! It also gives you an opportunity to compliment them on and thank them for their hard work!

@EposVox
I sometimes wonder if anyone actually pays the $35.

It seems ludicrously high for a few pages.

@EposVox But, you know, publishers have a lot of expenses, they have to pay authors when they publish, reviewers, …

@EposVox i didn’t know! Thank you!

@EposVox I've actually done this before! Needed the full text for that study that said the US is an oligarchy that was in the news a few years back for an org project. I found the text but didn't have rights to use it, so I emailed the authors and both gave me permission!

@EposVox Honestly that's what I did when my friend published a paper a while back. They want to share.

I've heard it's costly to pay a publisher for the rights to allow readers to be able to download the paper for free. The publishers make big money.

Ich glaube, dass dir das helfen könnte @seitenweiser !

@EposVox nods head in agreement over this sudden realization.

@EposVox is this the case with ever scientific publisher or are different degrees of

Custodians
Upholders
Newsmen
Tyrannical &
Selfish

?

@EposVox Absolutely true! I've emailed authors to ask for papers a couple of times recently, and they responded almost immediately and were delighted to send them. The vibe I got was "OMG, YOU CARE ABOUT MY RESEARCH???" 💕

One guy offered to send me some of his other papers too. I was actually a little worried he wasn't going to leave me alone. :)

@EposVox

No kidding! Just yesterday I needed to find a paper written !!50!! years ago but all I found was "pay here", "pay there", money, money, money.

Want porn? Here! Free!

Want knowledge? F you, fork over the money!

No wonder the masses have nothing but jello between the ears!!!! 😡😡😡

@EposVox knowledge yearns to be free! Education for all! ✊ 🌹 📚

@EposVox @epiceneVivant this is true of most humanities and social science researchers I know as well.

@EposVox in the 1980's I was an enthusiastic innocent when I emailed David Goldberg in the USA to ask about his papers on genetic algorithms I was amazed to receive a box full of them sent free to me in Cambridge UK.

A side effect of this was of course that I read them.

(1980's some had email on our desks but paper and snail mail was still king)

@EposVox

arxiv.org and #scihub are the best!

@EposVox @xenotar I have emailed authors in the past and never got a response. Sci-Hub seems to be far more efficient in this matter.
#academia is filled with people who think they are just better than others. Of course it is not 100% but you get the point here right?

@EposVox 12ft.io my fav...

@EposVox as a lay person interested in science, this has worked for me multiple times.

@EposVox information wants to be free

@EposVox
Always worth boosting this when it comes around:)

@EposVox @hollie In the era where you had to send letters to authors asking them to mail you copies of their papers, you’d often get a lovely handwritten note as well.

@EposVox since I first saw this, I've emailed about a dozen people for copies of their papers and never once received a reply. 🤷 Ymmv.

@EposVox@glitch.lgbt I hate that science is pay-walled like this... while misinformation news sites are always free.

@EposVox i have used this several times successfully. One author mentioned that the study I was looking for was quite old so she sent me that paper and three more recent ones she'd worked on that were related to my work. Sci hub is always there for you but I prefer this way; it lets you connect to researchers.

@EposVox I've actually sought out people who I think would like the topic I've written about, and sent it to them 🤓

@EposVox Didn't know that. I always figured it was like anything else, that they got an (albeit small) cut.

@EposVox just today I was listening to a RadioLab episode from a few weeks ago about this exact industry. It’s a great dive into how it works and how it’s evolved in the last few years

https://radiolab.org/podcast/library-alexandra

@EposVox this isn't open information. they might do it (many won't respond), but afaik they don't own copyright, and are not allowed to send copies for free. They also change their email address often so probably your email will bounce. They're just trying to justify propping up this ridiculous extractive publishing model

@EposVox So the payment isn't for the content, but for marketing and distribution.

Would that article even been found without marketing and distribution of the publisher?

@EposVox

\begin{rant}

Weird and wrong that paywalls are allowed to exist. Tax dollars paid for the research, authors pay thousands for a paper to be published, taxpayers expected to pay again to read it. It's on-line, people, distribution is free, not printed, not a book.

\end{rant}

@EposVox depends.

Some Publishers like #Elsevier literally demand exclusivity for #Copyright and most Universities will demand granting them exclusive copyrights to peoples' thesis.

I KID YOU NOT!

@EposVox this is an older code but it still checks out. I never ever heard of a scientist who wasn't willing to share their research.

@EposVox
Last time I emailed for a paper I got no reply :( I think I eventually found it elsewhere. The paywall barriers are quite annoying for those of us wanting to do a literature survey but are outside academia. Thankfully, scihub exists.

@EposVox this is probably a silly question but:

If the researchers don't make money from publishing, and peer reviewers aren't paid since they're volunteers, what incentive do researchers have to engage with journal publications?

@EposVox Who am I going to e-mail, though? Without the scientific journal, I don't know the author or their study even exist.

@EposVox this is not said enough.

@EposVox 😮

@EposVox True Story!

If you went to college, it's likely your alum library privileges work, too.

Sign up for your alum email address. Now you have a login and a password to try when you hit the "Institutional Access" button next to the paper you're trying to read.

If you went to grad school, or even took a certificate program, try that email too.

If you live near one of your schools, more papers are available if you're on the campus network, with the same login. Keep a list & visit campus.

@EposVox Can you receive donations or tips?

@EposVox If we offered even one/third for that paper you'd score.