Delhi HC ban on ‘shadow libraries’ is pushing Indian researchers up against the paywall

Research Manager, Harleen Kaur was quoted in this article in The Print looking at the recent Delhi High Court ban on ‘shadow libraries’ like Sci-Hub, Sci-Net and Library Genesis (LibGen) and its impact on Indian researchers.

India’s research ecosystem is 'grossly underfunded' and publishers’ tight control of knowledge often leads to a deepened inequality. The Sci-Hub order makes one think of the distinction between what is illegal versus what is immoral. I see a corollary between research getting published and the recent 'big questions' around big Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies freely capitalising on the labour performed by people to create products. Even though technically, publishers put in more effort in convening a journal and publishing it, the researchers who make it happen, including peer reviewers, are not paid fairly for their efforts. The access costs of single articles run in thousands of Indian rupees for a researcher in India if their academic institution does not provide it.

Read the full article here.