143
submitted 8 months ago by ALostInquirer@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

From time to time I find a dive into the Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy useful for refreshing my memory on some ideas and concepts.

Also the MDN Learning Area is really useful for getting a handle on some web development details.

What others are you fond of, whether esoteric or exoteric*?

*one of my other favorites is any sort of thesaurus that provides antonyms, 'cause some antonyms just aren't as commonly used!

🤞 this federates properly this time (sorry if the old post eventually emerges, I initially posted this shortly after the Lemmy update kinda threw a wrench in things across instances)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] steventhedev@lemmy.world 51 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Whatever you do, make sure that you learn legally and avoid those horrible sites that steal the hard work of researchers and prevent publishers from properly incentivizing academic research by allowing just anyone to download research for free. You know, horrible sites like LibGen, SciHub, or Anna's archive.

Totally disgusting sites that you should definitely avoid.

[-] centof@lemm.ee 27 points 8 months ago

Do not go to sci-hub.se! Can you believe someone had the audacity to allow access to government funded research papers for free? Everyone knows that only elite institutions deserve the benefits of publicly funded projects.

Support your local capitalist by paying them for the content they rightfully stole.

[-] steventhedev@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

I forgot about that one, thank you!

[-] Glitch777@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

based comment right here

[-] General_Effort@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago

YSK: That publishers do not fund or incentivize academic research.

Authors of scientific papers do not receive money for publishing them (sometimes they have to pay). The peer reviewers work for free. The high prices of scientific journals simply turn into obscenely huge profit margins for the publishers. Publishers harm research by siphoning off money from research budgets and also by preventing better ways of sharing research. Their obscene profits depend on doing things a certain way.

Funny story: Traditionally, researchers have transferred the copyrights to their papers to the journal. When the internet had become a thing, authors made their own papers available directly for download. Publishers then went after the authors for sharing their own research.

[-] steventhedev@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

But surely the journals provide some sort of service for the researchers, right? Like paying for experts to review their scientific claims, or fact checking their citations, or even basic grammatical proofreading, right? If the journals are earning so much from research, then conducting academic research must be a lucrative field with so many publishers competing to be the first ones to publish a paper.

[-] General_Effort@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I see what you are asking: Why doesn't market competition drive down prices?

People have to publish in prestigious journals to make a career in science. So, that's the "service". Their position in the system lets them extract payment for something that other people deliver.

Even if someone opens up a competing journal, they are not likely to get quality submissions, because publishing in some unknown journal does not help the CV.

At the same time, the cost is mostly born by other people. Librarians pay for the subscriptions. I'm not sure why there is not more pushback from that angle. Eventually, institutions need access to these journals.

The cost to scientific research is spread over all society. No one person feels it. No one can even be sure how much better things would be under a reformed system.

Progress happens only when someone goes too far and causes outrage in the academic community. There has been some progress to move to a better model. But all that money can pay for a lot of PR.

ETA: On second thought, I'm probably simply not aware of the efforts of librarians, etc.

[-] steventhedev@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

I was being sarcastic. Many journals don't provide any of those services. Some journals even charge researchers for the "prestige" of publishing a paper. Peer review is mostly unpaid work, and some reviewers act as gatekeepers.

[-] TehBamski@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Add a " /s " at the end to help people know that.

[-] General_Effort@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

I thought you might be, but I'm sure it's not common knowledge that it doesn't work that way.

For some reason, Lemmy has a tendency to go all in on trickle-down on copyright. Some threads feel like they are overrun by right-wing libertarians, with their faith in absolute property rights. Except that even the more doctrinaire among those libertarians tend to be conflicted on intellectual property.

[-] FinalRemix@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Often it's a requirement of the workplace (typically acadaemia, e.g. R1 institutions), and it's paid for in large part by various grants from the government. Or done for free in "spare time" as is the case where I work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[-] stackPeek@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago

As an information, you can always rely on the wikipedia page for those sites to find the up-to-date domain, so you can avoid it at all cost!!

[-] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago

As a quick reminder to everyone: Researchers have to pay to get their papers published in scientific journals. They receive no money back from those journals. The journals are all double-dipping by charging both the author and the reader to use them. It isn’t stealing from researchers when researchers don’t get paid for your usage regardless.

In fact, one of the most ethical ways to get access to research papers is to go to journals, find the author(s) of the paper you want to read, and email them directly to politely ask for a copy. They’ll gladly send it to you for free, because they also hate the journal system that they’ve been forced into using.

[-] the_stat_man@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Whoever set up these sites should be ashamed of themselves. How dare they make critical knowledge that can improve humanity freely available?

[-] plactagonic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 8 months ago

Our teacher show us exactly how to access scihub, libgen and sites like this just for us to "avoid them".

[-] minyakcurry@monyet.cc 1 points 8 months ago

I struggle to find recent publications on SciHub, y'know, to report them to the hardworking journals that tirelessly implemented paywalls.

Any ideas how I can find papers that are within the past 6 months?

[-] steventhedev@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago

Honestly - if it's a specific article, then just email the author. Unless they're a blowhard they'll usually be happy to shoot off a copy of the final PDF or at least a preprint. Doubly so if you're a grad student and say how excited you are about their research.

this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
143 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26250 readers
1123 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS