If You Can’t Beat ‘Em…Elsevier to Purchase Sci-Hub

KitKat US packaging (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Exasperated over ineffectual attempts to shut down Sci-Hub, an illegal website for sharing scholarly journal articles, Elsevier has finally decided to purchase the service for an undisclosed sum.

Developed by Alexandra Elbakyan, a graduate student from Kazakhstan, Sci-Hub operates with impunity outside the reach of the U.S. and E.U. legal systems. Ms. Elbakyan has failed to appear in court and has repeatedly thumbed her nose at western authorities.

Employing other tactics, Elsevier has attempted to persuade Kazakh foreign affairs minister Borat Sagdiyev to take action. However, dealings with the government of Kazakhstan, even when they involve Kokpar — a kind of polo played with a dead goat — have not resulted in closing the site.

“We’ve tried just about everything,” sighed Tom Reller, VP of Corporate Relations at Elsevier. “But, as Abraham Elzevir, the great, great, great grandfather of our company used to say in Dutch, “Als je hen niet kunt verslaan, voeg je dan bij hen!” which translates roughly in English to “If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em!”

Other directors at Elsevier were more upbeat about the acquisition, suggesting that it could increase their share of the junk food market. Alicia Wise, Director of Universal Access at Elsevier offered in The New York Times, “It’s not as if you’d walk into a grocery store and feel vindicated about stealing an organic chocolate bar as long as you left the Kit Kat bar on the shelf … Our acquisition of Sci-Hub means buying our own content back along with those uneaten Kit Kats!”

The purchase of another open access service by a corporate publishing giant has left some with the taste of bitter chocolate. Dana Boyd at Microsoft Research, who led a campaign to delete Mendeley accounts when the startup was acquired by Elsevier in 2013, is leading a new #deleteSciHub twitter campaign. Thousands of scientists have shown their support on social media.

What will Alexandra Elbakyan do with her windfall from the purchase of Sci-Hub? Following a hard Kazakh winter, the graduate student plans on purchasing a few papers before heading to an undisclosed tropical beach to finish writing her dissertation.