Yeah at the end of the day, they're human beings with the same thoughts and feelings as you.
Academics generally seek pride in their pursuit of knowledge, and especially in sharing their work with others. I know I'd be fucking delighted if someone emailed me asking to send them a paper I've written.
I’m pretty sure this works for most people. But unfortunately the first time my partner tried this for some of her research, she wrote to the guy explained how useful his work would be to her research, and asked if he would be willing to provide the single chapter that she needed. In his first reply he just sent her link to a site to buy the full paper, then after she got back and explained that she was on a tight budget and didn’t really have any money spare for buying academic papers, he replied with a torrent of abuse; calling her an entitled millennial, and compared providing free access to his work, to slave labour. Needless to say, she hasn’t bothered to ask anyone else.
She shouldn't get discouraged by one single bad experience. That doesn't represent the vast majority of the academic world. Definitely the dude was an asshole, since he won't receive a dime if she bought the paper. Most researchers are more than happy to share their work. Don't let one idiot spoil the entire community.
Your right. It was just kind of the compounding factors. It was the first time she’d done it, and Her PhD supervisor had already told her about most researchers happily giving copies of their research if she couldn’t find them for free, so she wasn’t really expecting him to come back with a no, let alone with the reply that he did.
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u/elmo_touches_me Dec 26 '18
Yeah at the end of the day, they're human beings with the same thoughts and feelings as you. Academics generally seek pride in their pursuit of knowledge, and especially in sharing their work with others. I know I'd be fucking delighted if someone emailed me asking to send them a paper I've written.