Dataset Information

Worldwide inequality in access to full text scientific articles: the example of ophthalmology.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The problem of access to medical information, particularly in low-income countries, has been under discussion for many years. Although a number of developments have occurred in the last decade (e.g., the open access (OA) movement and the website Sci-Hub), everyone agrees that these difficulties still persist very widely, mainly due to the fact that paywalls still limit access to approximately 75% of scholarly documents. In this study, we compare the accessibility of recent full text articles in the field of ophthalmology in 27 established institutions located worldwide.

Methods

A total of 200 references from articles were retrieved using the PubMed database. Each article was individually checked for OA. Full texts of non-OA (i.e., "paywalled articles") were examined to determine whether they were available using institutional and Hinari access in each institution studied, using "alternative ways" (i.e., PubMed Central, ResearchGate, Google Scholar, and Online Reprint Request), and using the website Sci-Hub.

Results

The number of full texts of "paywalled articles" available using institutional and Hinari access showed strong heterogeneity, scattered between 0% full texts to 94.8% (mean = 46.8%; SD = 31.5; median = 51.3%). We found that complementary use of "alternative ways" and Sci-Hub leads to 95.5% of full text "paywalled articles," and also divides by 14 the average extra costs needed to obtain all full texts on publishers' websites using pay-per-view.

Conclusions

The scant number of available full text "paywalled articles" in most institutions studied encourages researchers in the field of ophthalmology to use Sci-Hub to search for scientific information. The scientific community and decision-makers must unite and strengthen their efforts to find solutions to improve access to scientific literature worldwide and avoid an implosion of the scientific publishing model. This study is not an endorsement for using Sci-Hub. The authors, their institutions, and publishers accept no responsibility on behalf of readers.

SUBMITTER: Boudry C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6825414 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Worldwide inequality in access to full text scientific articles: the example of ophthalmology.

Boudry Christophe C Alvarez-Muñoz Patricio P Arencibia-Jorge Ricardo R Ayena Didier D Brouwer Niels J NJ Chaudhuri Zia Z Chawner Brenda B Epee Emilienne E Erraïs Khalil K Fotouhi Akbar A Gharaibeh Almutez M AM Hassanein Dina H DH Herwig-Carl Martina C MC Howard Katherine K Kaimbo Wa Kaimbo Dieudonne D Laughrea Patricia-Ann PA Lopez Fernando A FA Machin-Mastromatteo Juan D JD Malerbi Fernando K FK Ndiaye Papa Amadou PA Noor Nina A NA Pacheco-Mendoza Josmel J Pacheco-Mendoza Josmel J Papastefanou Vasilios P VP Shah Mufarriq M Shields Carol L CL Wang Ya Xing YX Yartsev Vasily V Mouriaux Frederic F

PeerJ 20191030

<h4>Background</h4>The problem of access to medical information, particularly in low-income countries, has been under discussion for many years. Although a number of developments have occurred in the last decade (e.g., the open access (OA) movement and the website Sci-Hub), everyone agrees that these difficulties still persist very widely, mainly due to the fact that paywalls still limit access to approximately 75% of scholarly documents. In this study, we compare the accessibility of recent ful ...[more]

PMID: 31687270

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Dataset Information

Worldwide inequality in access to full text scientific articles: the example of ophthalmology.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Worldwide inequality in access to full text scientific articles: the example of ophthalmology.

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