@nutjob4life
I recently found the solution to inaccessible #science papers, it is called unpaywall: https://unpaywall.org/
Using the browser extension immediately found me this: https://www.nature.com/articles/356739a0.pdf
I am not trying to detract from the point here, I also agree this is a real problem and we should be seriously looking at how science is shared with the public. But it is definitely worth spreading the knowledge of this workaround.
Unpaywall.org is an undeniable good but it is a tool to discover, it doesn't create open articles. Not all Nature articles have open alternatives.
If academic articles are important to you and you aren't in academia join a library or use the one you're a member of.
For those complaining about academic publishing models ask academics why Impact Factor matters to them.
Then think about the median number of citations articles get, approaching 0
@simon_lucy @nutjob4life
I might have misunderstood that but it seems your argument is: Because we have a broken system where researchers can't get funding or recognition, or even have their findings known about without conforming to the essentially kleptocratic money making rules of journals, we should all conform to the customer side of those rules.
There is also evidence this practice undermines actual scientific progress.
There's no shortage of avenues to publishing, there are a much smaller number of journals that make a difference in terms of metrics and the economy of metrics that academia has entrapped itself into.
IF, JIF was created for libraries to decide which journals they should subscribe to. In the 50's Journals were peddled to them much like Encyclopedias were peddled to families. A perpetuating model and academia was complicit.
Sean Kelly
Duncan
Simon Lucy