Free access to scientific literature and its influence on the publishing activity in developing countries: The effect of Sci‐Hub in the field of mathematics
研究利用Sci-Hub作为免费获取科学文献的外生事件，结合访问数据和Web of Science发表数据，发现免费获取显著增加了发展中国家作者在数学期刊上的发表数量，支持开放获取运动的主张。
Abstract This paper investigates whether free access to scientific literature increases the participation of under‐represented groups in scientific discourse. To this end, we aggregate and match data tracing access to Sci‐Hub, a widely used black open access (OA) repository or shadow library , and publication data from the Web of Science (WoS). We treat the emergence of Sci‐Hub as an exogenous event granting relatively unrestricted access to publications, which are otherwise hidden behind a paywall. We analyze changes in the publication count of researchers from developing countries in a given journal as a proxy for general participation in scientific discourse. Our results indicate that in the exemplary field of mathematics, free access to academic knowledge is likely to improve the representation of authors from developing countries in international journals. Assuming the desirability of greater international diversity in science (e.g., to generate more original work, reproduce empirical findings in different settings, or shift the research focus toward topics that are overlooked by researchers from more developed countries), our findings lend evidence to the claim of the OA movement that scientific knowledge should be free and widely distributed.