{"doi":"10.7287/peerj.preprints.3100v1","title":"Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature","abstract":"<jats:p>\n                  The website Sci-Hub provides access to scholarly literature via full text PDF downloads. The site enables users to access articles that would otherwise be paywalled. Since its creation in 2011, Sci-Hub has grown rapidly in popularity. However, until now, the extent of Sci-Hub's coverage was unclear. As of March 2017, we find that Sci-Hub's database contains 68.9% of all 81.6 million scholarly articles, which rises to 85.2% for those published in closed access journals. Furthermore, Sci-Hub contains 77.0% of the 5.2 million articles published by inactive journals. Coverage varies by discipline, with 92.8% coverage of articles in chemistry journals compared to 76.3% for computer science. Coverage also varies by publisher, with the coverage of the largest publisher, Elsevier, at 97.3%. Our interactive browser at\n                  <jats:uri>https://greenelab.github.io/scihub</jats:uri>\n                  allows users to explore these findings in more detail. Finally, we estimate that over a six-month period in 2015–2016, Sci-Hub provided access for 99.3% of valid incoming requests. Hence, the scope of this resource suggests the subscription publishing model is becoming unsustainable. For the first time, the overwhelming majority of scholarly literature is available gratis to anyone with an Internet connection.\n                </jats:p>","journal":"Publication Server of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (Goethe University Frankfurt)","year":2017,"id":5049,"datarank":2.9106364665018325,"base_score":3.6888794541139363,"endowment":3.6888794541139363,"self_citation_contribution":0.5533319181170905,"citation_network_contribution":2.357304548384742,"self_endowment_contribution":0.5533319181170905,"citer_contribution":2.357304548384742,"corpus_percentile":92.45764678579717,"corpus_rank":976,"citation_count":39,"citer_count":37,"citers_with_citation_signal":25,"citers_with_endowment":25,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":true,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8731,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2017-07-20","fair_score":33.3333,"fair_percentile":12.803532008830022,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":36686,"name":"Ariel Rodriguez Romero","orcid":"0000-0003-2290-4927","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":36689,"name":"Stephen Reid McLaughlin","orcid":"0000-0002-9888-3168","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":36690,"name":"Bastian Greshake Tzovaras","orcid":"0000-0002-9925-9623","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":308,"name":"Casey S. Greene","orcid":"0000-0001-8713-9213","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1208,"name":"Daniel S. Himmelstein","orcid":"0000-0002-3012-7446","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":42,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-03-01T18:20:47.508186Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":32.5,"fair_a":55.0,"fair_i":12.5,"fair_r":33.3333,"fair_zscore":-1.1091,"fair_rationale":{"fair_score":33.33,"has_llm":true,"dimensions":{"F":{"name":"Findable","score":32.5,"criteria":[{"key":"f_has_doi","label":"Has a persistent DOI","kind":"deterministic","weight":1.0,"fraction":1.0,"signal":"DOI present","rationale":null},{"key":"f_repository_presence","label":"Indexed in repositories / literature DBs","kind":"deterministic","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"signal":"datacite=0, pmcid=False, pmid=False","rationale":null},{"key":"f_persistent_ids","label":"Resolvable scholarly identifiers (OpenAlex)","kind":"deterministic","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.0,"signal":"no OpenAlex id","rationale":null},{"key":"f_metadata_richness","label":"Rich, machine-readable metadata","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.25,"signal":null,"rationale":"The paper provides DOIs and some metadata, but there is no evidence of structured, machine-readable metadata beyond text descriptions."}]},"A":{"name":"Accessible","score":55.0,"criteria":[{"key":"a_open_access","label":"Open Access / files deposited","kind":"deterministic","weight":1.5,"fraction":1.0,"signal":"Open Access","rationale":null},{"key":"a_retrievable","label":"Free full text retrievable","kind":"deterministic","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"signal":"0 OA location(s)","rationale":null},{"key":"a_access_protocol","label":"Clear data/code access protocol","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.5,"signal":null,"rationale":"The paper mentions an interactive browser and GitHub repository for data, but the access protocol is not clearly defined with authentication or licensing terms."}]},"I":{"name":"Interoperable","score":12.5,"criteria":[{"key":"i_linked_data","label":"Linked datasets / DataCite relations","kind":"deterministic","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"signal":"linked_datasets=0, datacite=0","rationale":null},{"key":"i_standard_ids","label":"References data via standard accessions","kind":"deterministic","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.0,"signal":"accessions=0, trials=0","rationale":null},{"key":"i_standards","label":"Standard formats, vocabularies & identifiers","kind":"llm","weight":1.0,"fraction":0.25,"signal":null,"rationale":"While DOIs are used, the paper does not specify adherence to standard vocabularies or interoperable formats beyond general mention."}]},"R":{"name":"Reusable","score":33.33,"criteria":[{"key":"r_license","label":"Clear, open reuse license","kind":"deterministic","weight":1.5,"fraction":0.0,"signal":"no license","rationale":null},{"key":"r_downloads","label":"Demonstrated reuse (downloads)","kind":"deterministic","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.0,"signal":"downloads=0","rationale":null},{"key":"r_version","label":"Versioned / maintained","kind":"deterministic","weight":0.5,"fraction":0.0,"signal":"no version chain","rationale":null},{"key":"r_dataset","label":"Classified as a data resource","kind":"deterministic","weight":0.5,"fraction":1.0,"signal":"is_dataset","rationale":null},{"key":"r_reusability","label":"Data-availability statement, license & reproducibility","kind":"llm","weight":2.0,"fraction":0.5,"signal":null,"rationale":"The paper includes a CC BY 4.0 license and source code repository, but lacks a detailed data-availability statement and explicit reproducibility instructions."}]}},"suggestions":["Provide a structured metadata file (e.g., JSON-LD) describing the dataset.","Define a clear access protocol with authentication steps and licensing for data reuse.","Use standard vocabularies (e.g., DCAT) and interoperable formats (e.g., CSV with schema).","Add a formal data-availability statement specifying repository, license, and version.","Include a reproducibility checklist or container (e.g., Dockerfile) for the analysis."],"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash","agent_version":"fair_agent_v2","fulltext_source":"unpaywall_pdf"},"fair_model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash","fair_agent_version":"fair_agent_v2","fair_fulltext_source":"unpaywall_pdf","fair_has_llm":true,"fair_computed_at":"2026-06-18T00:43:54.681294Z","clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}