On 12th August 2015, Journalist Adam Smith posted the following post on Twitter.
Quick unscientific survey. How successful is #icanhazpdf if you’re looking for a certain paper? I’m a journo who covers #openaccess a bit.
— Adam Smith (@AdamCommentism) August 12, 2015
For those that don’t know about the hashtag #icanhazpdf, see the likes of this, this (PDF) and this.
Hopefully, Adam will in some way follow up this all with something of substance.
Follows the thread on Twitter that resulted from Adam’s tweet.:-
Quick unscientific survey. How successful is #icanhazpdf if you’re looking for a certain paper? I’m a journo who covers #openaccess a bit.
Tweet text
Reply to @AdamCommentism
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@AdamCommentism Never failed me.
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@AdamCommentism You might find the comments thread on this post of use. http://cenblog.org/terra-sigillata/2011/12/22/icanhazpdf-civil-disobedience/ …
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@McDawg cheers!
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@AdamCommentism @McDawg its a coin toss. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesnt
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@theoneamit @AdamCommentism Factors like how many followers you have makes a difference, IMO.
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@AdamCommentism some other things on Google scholar.
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@winelibrarian what exactly is the civil disobedience regarding access on Google Scholar?
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@AdamCommentism well, if I were to guess, I’d say because we are circumventing licensing agreements. But, I’m not positive.
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@winelibrarian do you mean if you find a paper on G scholar you just email the author to request a pdf? Or is there an automated request?
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@AdamCommentism oh I just meant there were other articles on Google scholar if you search for icanhazpdf.
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@winelibrarian oh I see! Thanks 🙂
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@AdamCommentism not sure if you’ve seen this article: http://eprints.rclis.org/24847/2/gardner.pdf …
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@winelibrarian this is brill, thanks!!
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@adamcommentism Since you’re in the UK, I want to note that ILL between the US and UK often differs with UK libs charging. @winelibrarian
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@chealsye good point!
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@AdamCommentism Used it a few times. Never failed me yet. Once got the paper from the publisher that way! Have also supplied others.
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@Stephen_Curry great, cheers! Can you RT my q too? (I’m thinking of pitching a provocative opinion piece about civil disobedience re. OA)
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@AdamCommentism @Stephen_Curry I’ve never gotten to that point, if my uni doesn’t have access and libgen is down, I go to r/scholar.
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@AdamCommentism @Stephen_Curry Would be interesting to compare success and time beween r/scholar on reddit and the hashtag on twitter.
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@Duke_of_neural @Stephen_Curry and country of origin of the requester. I feel reddit has more American users but that’s just a hunch.
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@AdamCommentism I think @JwrHardcastle might be able to help you with that one
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@shanemcanning @AdamCommentism there was an @altmetric blog post in 2013 http://www.altmetric.com/blog/interactions-the-numbers-behind-icanhazpdf/ … there might be more current posts around
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@adamcommentism I’ve only used it as a handful of times as I typically have access. I’m at problem at 50/50 rate with it. I will send PDFs
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@adamcommentism if I see the hashtag come up in my timeline. I know you’re looking for a civil disobedience angle, but check out @OA_Button.
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@AdamCommentism @Duke_of_neural for papers that exist online I’d say 90% in a few minutes.
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@christlet @AdamCommentism You mean no one is marching over to the library and scanning for tweeps? TWITTER, I AM DISAPPOINT!!!
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@Duke_of_neural @AdamCommentism I know, right?
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@AdamCommentism @Stephen_Curry Extremely successful. I usually have the paper within 5 minutes. Has v rarely failed me.
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@AdamCommentism @gcabanac I usually get three emails with the pdf within 5min. Several times per week.
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@AdamCommentism Some references in my #bibliogifts paper might be of interest http://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23445 … (preprint http://www.irit.fr/publis/SIG/2015_JASIST_C.pdf …)
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@AdamCommentism @McDawg Anecdotally, 100%
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@AdamCommentism @Stephen_Curry Near 100% success.
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@AdamCommentism @BioinfoTools never failed me. In fact often end up with too many copies.
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@AdamCommentism I’ve found it extremely useful At a rough guess, I’ve had 2 failed requests from a total of 7 or 8.
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@AdamCommentism @BioinfoTools almost always get what I’m after
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@AdamCommentism @Stephen_Curry I don’t find it great. My followers usually come through for me
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@AdamCommentism have used it ~30 times in the last 4 years. Hasn’t failed yet.
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@AdamCommentism @McDawg Didn’t even know about it, thanks @McDawg for RT ! Not sure really used by French… ? Anyone ? Any alternative ?
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@AdamCommentism Plz include icanhaz etiquette: Delete request tweet after receiving, don’t use hashtag when sending and don’t thank senders.
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@AdamCommentism So far 100% success quote. Couldn’t even access my own paper once.
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@AdamCommentism @Stephen_Curry whoa I didn’t even know this existed awesome!
Adam Smith 
Graham Steel 
Amit Kumar Yadav 
Michelle 
Chealsye Bowley 
Stephen Curry 
Phil Spear 
Shane Canning 
James Hardcastle 
Christophe Leterrier 
David Dobbs 
Sylvain Deville 
Guillaume Cabanac 
Jⓐn Velterop 
Zen Faulkes 
Mick Watson 
Anne-Sophie Pascal 
Anthony Caravaggi 
Julie Blommaert 
Baroness Dr Rachael 
Avinash 
Distolo 
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Zoe Hoeppner, PhD 
McBlawg 