When Scholars Become Outlaws: What Academics Taught Me About Pirate Open Access

Presentation Type

Presentation

Start Date

6-4-2026 2:20 PM

End Date

6-4-2026 2:50 PM

Description

Millions of scholars worldwide use academic pirate networks (APNs) like Sci-Hub and Library Genesis to access research literature. But why? And what does their use reveal about the state of scholarly publishing? This presentation shares findings from a phenomenographic study of 25 scholars who use APNs, exploring how they make sense of their participation in these networks. The research identified three progressively deeper ways scholars experience APNs: as practical tools for efficient access, as proxies for scholarly community, and as the legitimate ethos of scholarly praxis itself.  Attendees will learn concrete implications for their roles: what librarians can do to reduce friction, how administrators can better support open access, why graduate students see APNs as “hidden curriculum,” and what publishers must understand about scholar resistance. The study also surfaces rarely discussed issues including invisible academic labor in research acquisition, neurodiversity considerations, and the growing perception of traditional publishing as “broken.”

Author Bios

Dr. Lance Eaton is the Senior Associate Director of AI in Teaching and Learning at Northeastern University. His research examines how digital tools expand and complicate teaching and learning communities. He completed his PhD at UMass Boston with a dissertation on scholars’ experiences with academic pirate networks. His reflections on education, technology, and access appear at aiedusimplified.substack.com.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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Apr 6th, 2:20 PM Apr 6th, 2:50 PM

When Scholars Become Outlaws: What Academics Taught Me About Pirate Open Access

Millions of scholars worldwide use academic pirate networks (APNs) like Sci-Hub and Library Genesis to access research literature. But why? And what does their use reveal about the state of scholarly publishing? This presentation shares findings from a phenomenographic study of 25 scholars who use APNs, exploring how they make sense of their participation in these networks. The research identified three progressively deeper ways scholars experience APNs: as practical tools for efficient access, as proxies for scholarly community, and as the legitimate ethos of scholarly praxis itself.  Attendees will learn concrete implications for their roles: what librarians can do to reduce friction, how administrators can better support open access, why graduate students see APNs as “hidden curriculum,” and what publishers must understand about scholar resistance. The study also surfaces rarely discussed issues including invisible academic labor in research acquisition, neurodiversity considerations, and the growing perception of traditional publishing as “broken.”