Sci-Hub as backfall

adamsmith · October 19, 2017

The fix is in the connector, i.e. the browser extension. 5.0.25 is not released yet.

gagarine · July 20, 2018

I found this sci-hub lookup connector https://www.reddit.com/r/scihub/comments/7ilwzv/scihub_look_up_engine_for_zotero/

[
{
"name": "Sci-Hub Lookup",
"alias": "Sci-Hub",
"icon": "null",
"_urlTemplate": "https://sci-hub.tw/{z:DOI}",
"description": "Sci-Hub full text pdf search",
"hidden": false,
"_urlParams": [],
"_urlNamespaces": {
"z": "http://www.zotero.org/namespaces/openSearch#",
"": "http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"
},
"_iconSourceURI": "https://sci-hub.la/favicon.ico"
}
]

bwiernik · July 20, 2018

There are two types of Sci-Hub lookup engine available at:
https://github.org/bwiernik/zotero-tools

gagarine · October 29, 2018

I did a short explanation about how to add a custom PDF resolver that use Zotero.

https://medium.com/@gagarine/use-sci-hub-with-zotero-as-a-fall-back-pdf-resolver-cf139eb2cea7

Hop it can help.

maxsu · June 4, 2019

Status check on this - as of mid 2019 the zotero connector will extract a doi from a sci-hub page but will not download the sci-hub hosted fulltext.

The workaround: download the document and then manually drag the PDF into zotero

Providing a properly working sci-hub translator has less liability than using sci-hub as a backup resolver. To wit, it does not cause zotero to illegally download without user knowledge, or to automatically break the paywall on sites. Nor does it reduce Sci-hub ad revenue.

The use case does, as it always did, depend on the user to use sci-hub only if they have institutional or jurisdictional permission to access the respective paper. Any liability is strictly in the user's hands - this is just another data source that zotero can understand

adamsmith · June 4, 2019

Sorry, we're not going to ship a sci-hub translator with Zotero. Just like gagarine did for the lookup, people are obviously welcome to create their own.

maxsu · June 5, 2019

I think I should take back my analysis as well - zotero's funding and standing in the academic community may be at risk if it did endorse Sci-Hub. As such it would not be reasonable to expect sci-hub features to ship with zotero now or at any time in the near future.

I do think supporting Sci-Hub is of critical importance for establishing open access for the 80 million potential scientists who will come online in the coming decades; anyone who would like to collaborate on an equitable integration of sci-hub into zotero should please feel free to contact me (max.suica@gmail.com).

Thanks for your time, Adam.

jacob_peacock · August 7, 2019

It appears there has been a regression though and the issue at https://github.com/zotero/zotero-connectors/issues/190 persists today, as maxsu noted.

dstillman · August 7, 2019

It's not a regression — the outer page just now includes a DOI, so Zotero offers to save data for it as it would on any other page. The PDF icon only appears when no translator is triggered on the page and a PDF is detected in an iframe, as a workaround for sites that display PDFs in wrapper pages.

We'll look into offering the PDF option as an option in the save menu even when there's a translator on the parent page.

dstillman · August 7, 2019

Oh, but note that, if you're using Firefox, you can right-click on a framed PDF and choose This Frame -> Show Only This Frame and then click the save button (which should be the PDF icon) on the PDF itself.

jacob_peacock · August 7, 2019

Gotcha, thanks, Dan!

maxsu · August 13, 2019

I am happy to learn about the "Show Only This Frame" trick!

> We'll look into offering the PDF option as an option in the save menu even when there's a translator on the parent page.

I like this. I noticed that sometimes the 'is PDF Frame' feature briefly sets the PDF icon, before the parent translator loads and takes over.