February 2025

Researchers and other users are accessing websites with unlawfully uploaded publication content on a regular basis, and using this content in their research and publication work. Examples of these sites include SciHub, Library Genesis and Anna’s Archive. Users of these sites are based in many countries. These piracy websites have no incentive to ensure the accuracy of research content, do not themselves curate for research integrity/retraction issues, and do not regularly incorporate retraction information from publishers, and are thus inherently unreliable. Researchers may also be unaware of the many recent government warnings about the cybersecurity risks of such sites, and the need to improve cybersecurity hygiene generally in light of malicious national actors (Russia in particular).

I was pleased to address these important topics at the Access Lab conference organized by Open Athens in February. My remarks based on a transcript (tweaked a bit for readability) and the PowerPoint I used can be found on the “presentations” page here https://scipublaw.com/presentations/