(21 October 2015) What if you’re a scientist looking for the latest published research on a particular subject, but you can’t afford to pay for it?
The BBC says that In many countries, it’s against the law to download copyrighted material without paying for it – whether it’s a music track, a movie, or an academic paper. Published research is protected by the same laws, and access is generally restricted to scientists – or institutions – who subscribe to journals.
But some scientists argue that their need to access the latest knowledge justifies flouting the law, and they’re using a Twitter hashtag to help pirate scientific papers.
Andrea Kuszewski, a cognitive scientist and science writer, invented the tag, which uses a code phrase: “I can haz PDF” – a play on words combining a popular geeky phrase used widely online in a meme involving cat pictures, and a common online file format.
Read the story in full here.
