The base of scientific articles Sci-Hub is again available for residents of Russia

A few days ago, the Sci-Hub service, which provides free access to articles from paid scientific journals, stopped working on the territory of the Russian Federation. When trying to access the site from the Russian IP, the visitor received a message that the service no longer works in Russia, explaining why this happened. The main reason is the long-term persecution of Alexandra Elbakyan on the Russian-language Internet. The last drop in the sea of ​​offenses is what the RAS researcher recently named a newly discovered insect in honor of the founder of Sci-Hub. This is a rider-ichneumon, named Idiogramma elbakyanae in honor of Alexandra.



Today it became known that the service is again available for users from Russia. As far as can be understood, Elbakyan changed her anger to mercy after many Russian scientists sent her letters in which they thanked her for her “help in the work”, calling Alexandra as offenders. According to her, the senders of the letters asked her not to consider the received offensive remarks "the opinion of the country's scientific community."



“Such letters are encouraging: there are still people in this country who are worth continuing to work for. This is a good reason to return, ”Elbakyan wrote.



In her address, she also added that she did not consider harassment to be “a trifle that was not worth paying attention to.” “This is a rather serious problem, when those who are really doing important work are slandered, while political power, authority and awards go to useless talkers,” said Elbakyan.



Alexandra believes that the closure of Sci-Hub for users from Russia can harm Russian science, so she decided to resume service in the Russian Federation: “In light of this, a complete closure of Sci-Hub could in principle have a positive effect on the development of science in Russia, how it would be a good lesson. Sci-Hub acts in the interests of science, and if in the interests of science it is necessary to close the project, then it must be done. But as long as there are people for whom it makes sense to work, then I will continue. "



In many countries, Sci-Hub is considered a “pirate” resource, illegally supplying valuable information stolen from scientific journals, for which subscriptions cost a lot of money. In this case we are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. It is clear that large scientific publishing houses are unhappy and are doing everything to somehow influence Elbakyan. Recently, the New York District Court sentenced her in absentia to paying $ 15 million to Elseiver Scientific Publishing as compensation for damage. In addition, the other day, Alexander was sued by the American Chemical Society. The reason for the claim is the same - violation of copyright by Elbakyan.