The current system of scholarly publishing and the resultant inability of some researchers to legally and affordably access knowledge resources is resulting in the emergence of networks of piracy and other violations of copyright law. The Library does not support or condone such activities.

As a valid alternative to the current system of scholarly publishing, the Library strongly supports the Open Access movement and other New Publishing Models to drive legal transformations in scholarly publishing. The Library further advocates that the UConn community comply with copyright law, including appropriate use of Fair Use provisions.

The UConn community can avoid piracy and copyright violation by never sharing usernames and passwords, network logins, or barcodes. Avoid the use of pirate websites such as LibGen or Sci-Hub, which offer seemingly free access to the scholarly literature. These two websites in particular have been found to steal login credentials from unsuspecting users, which are then used to pirate vast quantities of scholarly articles. Use caution when posting scholarly articles, in particular the final published pdf file, on popular social media sites such as Academia.edu.  These sites are routinely subjected to take-down notices for materials that publishers indicate are in violation of copyright.

The Library provides access to vast collections of knowledge resources for the UConn community. Materials that are not accessible through the Library’s collections can generally be obtained through Document Delivery & Interlibrary Loan.

On behalf of the Scholarly Communications Team