Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature

• DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.3100v2
• Publication Date: 2018-01-13T09:11:29Z
• Authors: Daniel S Himmelstein; Ariel R Romero; Stephen R McLaughlin; Bastian Greshake ...; Casey S Greene
• Keywords: Popularity; Scope (computer science)

The website Sci-Hub provides access to scholarly literature via full text PDF downloads. site enables users articles that would otherwise be paywalled. Since its creation in 2011, has grown rapidly popularity. However, until now, the extent of Sci-Hub’s coverage was unclear. As March 2017, we find database contains 68.9% all 81.6 million articles, which rises 85.2% for those published toll journals. Coverage varies by discipline, with 92.8% chemistry journals compared 76.3% computer science. also publisher, largest Elsevier, at 97.3%. Our interactive browser https://greenelab.github.io/scihub allows explore these findings more detail. We preferentially covers popular, paywalled content, containing 96.2% citations since 2015. For recently requested Unpaywall users, oaDOI provided 48.8% whereas contained 81.5%. Together, and covered 94.1%, demonstrating gaps coverage, especially open can filled using licit services. first time, nearly is available gratis anyone an Internet connection. scope suggests subscription publishing model becoming unsustainable.