A small cartel controls scientific publishing, charging extortionate fees to access research which the public has funded. Following the example of Aaron Swartz, a young scientist called Alexandra Elbakyan created Sci-Hub, which allows free access to 70 million papers hidden behind paywalls.

submitted by Orangutan from (theguardian.com)

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[–]Tom_Bombadil 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This is a very interesting article when you get to her philosophy.

Political theory provided new growth to her evolving Open Access philosophy. Communism, a model of government-less society in which resources and opportunity are metered out with equality and impartiality, has never been successfully implemented. Nevertheless, it was a particularly seductive concept to Elbakyan. The collective ideals of communism entwined for her with the ideals of the scientific method. After all, science depends on shared data. History’s greatest scientific discoveries have all been made and shared, as scientists often say, from atop the shoulders of giants: their scientific predecessors who shared their research. To Elbakyan, science thrives only when scientists shout their discoveries to everyone.