Where is the academic research bay?!

[tyrian13]

Am I way behind the times, or is there no Academia Bay, where one can for free, and without paying tuition at a university, have access to libraries full of all unabridged research journals, scientific studies, and academic articles?

[Devin]

There are plenty of articles and textbooks and things out there. However, you have to know what to look for to get them. I think it would be a great idea if a database was put together that was easily searchable and contained only academic resources. For free of course.

Do you need help finding anything?

[tyrian13]

Well, I could compile a list in a day of all the things I've been wondering and meaning to study, but, just like anything else, it depends on what I am working on, and what I am investigating at the time. I can search google or ddg for relevant information, but does it not shock you all that if you are just a guy with an internet connection, you do NOT have access to the sum off all human knowledge?! You can't get any information on specifically how any natural process works! Including your own species! It's like permanently living inside a video game, and never being able to see the source code, but being given mapping or texturing tutorials instead.

[Spud17]

You can thank the copyright trolls for their protectionist policies in holding knowledge back from just anyone, and it's not only recent works they're trying to deny access to. If you want specific research papers, you could be faced with having to travel to the university library in person where the papers are held, just so you can photocopy them - students the world over have to do this every day. Many libraries face lawsuits (which the local authority would not be able to pay in loss which may spell the death of that library) if they scanned published papers and uploaded them for digital copying. The whole thing is a nightmare of course for those of us who aren't members of exclusive libraries and want access to academic articles and the like.

[tyrian13]

You can thank the copyright trolls for their protectionist policies in holding knowledge back from just anyone, and it's not only recent works they're trying to deny access to. If you want specific research papers, you could be faced with having to travel to the university library in person where the papers are held, just so you can photocopy them - students the world over have to do this every day. Many libraries face lawsuits (which the local authority would not be able to pay in loss which may spell the death of that library) if they scanned published papers and uploaded them for digital copying. The whole thing is a nightmare of course for those of us who aren't members of exclusive libraries and want access to academic articles and the like.

Yep, that is right on.

Someone heavily involved and knowledgeable in the torrenting collective has just got to make one or two good friends with professors at the universities with the largest online/digital Academic libraries in the world, and run web crawlers through the entire thing, copying every file in the university library intranet.

and PointdexterBay is born.

Do you want to get this idea off the ground? PM me and reply to the thread with your thoughts.

[Spud17]

Do you want to get this idea off the ground? PM me and reply to the thread with your thoughts.

In short, no. I have neither the time nor the inclination to be honest, but best of luck to you should you decide to take your idea further.

[tyrian13]

In short, no. I have neither the time nor the inclination to be honest, but best of luck to you should you decide to take your idea further.

Thank you for responding anyway, I appreciate that, and thanks!

[BigDogMoya]

There are many torrent's with academic material but I will admit depending on which subject you are researching it can be difficult to find. Another source that I personally use is https://www.coursera.org/ which offers free college courses fom universities in many different subjects, complete with video lectures from proffesors, and certificates of completion.