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Association between the use of Sci-Hub and consultation of scientific journals by medical students from six Latin American countries: A secondary analysis

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Sci-Hub is a website that allows users to download full-text versions of millions of scientific articles for free. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between the use of Sci-Hub and consultation of scientific journals by medical students from six L...

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Autores principales: Valladares-Garrido, Mario J., Serrano, Felipe T., Rios-González, Carlos Miguel, Pedersini, Paolo, Villafañe, Jorge Hugo, Franchi, Thomas, Tovani-Palone, Marcos Roberto, Mejia, Christian R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10432966/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37600382
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17868
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author Valladares-Garrido, Mario J.
Serrano, Felipe T.
Rios-González, Carlos Miguel
Pedersini, Paolo
Villafañe, Jorge Hugo
Franchi, Thomas
Tovani-Palone, Marcos Roberto
Mejia, Christian R.
author_facet Valladares-Garrido, Mario J.
Serrano, Felipe T.
Rios-González, Carlos Miguel
Pedersini, Paolo
Villafañe, Jorge Hugo
Franchi, Thomas
Tovani-Palone, Marcos Roberto
Mejia, Christian R.
author_sort Valladares-Garrido, Mario J.
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Sci-Hub is a website that allows users to download full-text versions of millions of scientific articles for free. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between the use of Sci-Hub and consultation of scientific journals by medical students from six Latin American countries. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a 2017 cross-sectional study of medical students from six Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, and Peru). Consultation of scientific journals was considered as the dependent variable, while the independent variable was the use of Sci-Hub. Responses were categorized as: “do not know”; “did not use it”; “used it at least once a week”; “used it more than once a week”; and “used it every day of the month”. In simple and multiple regression analyses, multivariate random-effects models were used to estimate prevalence ratios (PR), with 95% confident intervals (CI). RESULTS: Of the 6632 participants, 38.2% consulted scientific journals and 10.3% used Sci-Hub once a week. Using Sci-Hub at least once a week was associated with a 20% increase in the prevalence of consulting scientific journals (PR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.10–1.31, p < 0.001). The variables positively associated with Sci-Hub use included being in the sixth year of medical school (PR: 2.34), affiliation to more than one academic research group (PR: 1.81), being a medical student in Colombia (PR: 1.63), intermediate (PR: 1.16) and advanced levels of English (PR: 1.23), and daily use of PubMed (PR: 1.66), SciELO (PR: 1.87), and/or SCOPUS (PR: 1.58). CONCLUSION: Amongst medical students surveyed from the above six Latin American countries, the use of Sci-Hub at least once a week was significantly associated with the self-reported prevalence of consulting scientific journals.
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spelling pubmed-104329662023-08-18 Association between the use of Sci-Hub and consultation of scientific journals by medical students from six Latin American countries: A secondary analysis Valladares-Garrido, Mario J. Serrano, Felipe T. Rios-González, Carlos Miguel Pedersini, Paolo Villafañe, Jorge Hugo Franchi, Thomas Tovani-Palone, Marcos Roberto Mejia, Christian R. Heliyon Research Article INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Sci-Hub is a website that allows users to download full-text versions of millions of scientific articles for free. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between the use of Sci-Hub and consultation of scientific journals by medical students from six Latin American countries. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a 2017 cross-sectional study of medical students from six Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, and Peru). Consultation of scientific journals was considered as the dependent variable, while the independent variable was the use of Sci-Hub. Responses were categorized as: “do not know”; “did not use it”; “used it at least once a week”; “used it more than once a week”; and “used it every day of the month”. In simple and multiple regression analyses, multivariate random-effects models were used to estimate prevalence ratios (PR), with 95% confident intervals (CI). RESULTS: Of the 6632 participants, 38.2% consulted scientific journals and 10.3% used Sci-Hub once a week. Using Sci-Hub at least once a week was associated with a 20% increase in the prevalence of consulting scientific journals (PR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.10–1.31, p < 0.001). The variables positively associated with Sci-Hub use included being in the sixth year of medical school (PR: 2.34), affiliation to more than one academic research group (PR: 1.81), being a medical student in Colombia (PR: 1.63), intermediate (PR: 1.16) and advanced levels of English (PR: 1.23), and daily use of PubMed (PR: 1.66), SciELO (PR: 1.87), and/or SCOPUS (PR: 1.58). CONCLUSION: Amongst medical students surveyed from the above six Latin American countries, the use of Sci-Hub at least once a week was significantly associated with the self-reported prevalence of consulting scientific journals. Elsevier 2023-07-05 /pmc/articles/PMC10432966/ /pubmed/37600382 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17868 Text en © 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Research Article
Valladares-Garrido, Mario J.
Serrano, Felipe T.
Rios-González, Carlos Miguel
Pedersini, Paolo
Villafañe, Jorge Hugo
Franchi, Thomas
Tovani-Palone, Marcos Roberto
Mejia, Christian R.
Association between the use of Sci-Hub and consultation of scientific journals by medical students from six Latin American countries: A secondary analysis
title Association between the use of Sci-Hub and consultation of scientific journals by medical students from six Latin American countries: A secondary analysis
title_full Association between the use of Sci-Hub and consultation of scientific journals by medical students from six Latin American countries: A secondary analysis
title_fullStr Association between the use of Sci-Hub and consultation of scientific journals by medical students from six Latin American countries: A secondary analysis
title_full_unstemmed Association between the use of Sci-Hub and consultation of scientific journals by medical students from six Latin American countries: A secondary analysis
title_short Association between the use of Sci-Hub and consultation of scientific journals by medical students from six Latin American countries: A secondary analysis
title_sort association between the use of sci-hub and consultation of scientific journals by medical students from six latin american countries: a secondary analysis
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10432966/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37600382
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17868
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