Alexandra Asanovna Elbakyan (Russian:Алекса́ндра Аса́новна Элбакя́н[1][2] born 6 November 1988) is aKazakhstani computerprogrammer and creator of the websiteSci-Hub, which provides free access to research papers without regard for copyright.[3][4][5][6] According to a study published in 2018, Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature.[7]
Elbakyan has been described as "Science's Pirate Queen".[8] In 2016,Nature included her in theirlist of the top ten "people who mattered" in science.[9] Since 2011, she has been living inRussia.[10][11][12][13]
Alexandra started programming at the age of 12, making web pages inHTML and later writing inPHP,Delphi, andassembly languages.[10] She attempted to create aTamagotchi powered byartificial intelligence.[17] She performed her first computer hack at the age of 14; usingSQL injection, she obtained access to all logins and passwords of her home internet provider. Later, she discovered there were more vulnerabilities of thecross-site scripting type. She reported these issues to the internet provider, hoping to get a job with them, but this did not happen. Instead, the provider cut off her internet access.[10] Alexandra wrote in her blog that she first hacked a publisher's website when she was 16. The publisher wasMIT Press, which published online books onneuroscience, but they were locked behind a paywall that she could not afford. Alexandra wrote a PHP program that exploited avulnerability on the website to downloadpaywalled books without payment.[18]
Alexandra became interested in developingbrain–computer interfaces and in 2010 she joined theUniversity of Freiburg to work on such a project,[22][2] which eventually led to her summer internship inneuroscience atGeorgia Institute of Technology in the United States.[23] The same year, Elbakyan spoke at theHumanity+ Summit at Harvard on the topic "Brain-Computer Interfacing, Consciousness, and the Global Brain".[24] Elbakyan's idea was to develop a new kind of brain-machine interface that would merge human and machinequalia.[25][26] She also participated in theTowards a Science of Consciousness conference that was held in Tucson, Arizona with the poster "Consciousness in Mixed Systems: Merging Artificial and Biological Minds via Brain-Machine Interface".[27]
According to Elbakyan, Sci-Hub is a simplified version of aGlobal Brain because it "connects [the] brains of many researchers."[21][30]
Elbakyan developedSci-Hub in 2011, when she lived in Kazakhstan.[31] It was characterized byScience correspondentJohn Bohannon as "an awe-inspiring act of altruism or a massive criminal enterprise, depending on whom you ask."[4] Elbakyan has stated that the script was initially intended to make access to academic papers fast and convenient, without a global goal of making all science free.[3]
When academic publisherElsevier suedSci-Hub in the US in 2015, Elbakyan wrote a letter to the judge, wherein she explained her motives for starting the project: she could not afford to pay for each of the hundreds of papers she needed for her research project, so she had to pirate them.[32][33][34] She founded her website to help others in the same situation. In the letter Elbakyan has provided various arguments in support for her cause, such as Elsevier not being an author of papers, and not paying the authors, mentioning that "The general opinion in research community is that research papers should be distributed for free (open access), not sold".[35]
Elsevier was granted an injunction against her and $15 million in damages.[36][37] Following a lawsuit, Elbakyan remained in hiding due to the risk ofextradition.[38] There were also lawsuits against Sci-Hub and Elbakyan from other publishers and in other countries.
On 17 February 2023, a court in India refused to dismiss a blocking application submitted by the legal representatives of the publishers; nonetheless, the legal representatives of Elbakyan are working on a new creative legal strategy, namely the mandatory economic angle. Additionally, the revoked .SE domain of Sci-Hub, in a different court case, has now been restored due to a successful "ownership verification process."[39]
Elbakyan is a strong supporter of theopen access movement. According to her, Sci-Hub is a true implementation of open access principle in science.[40] She believes that science should be open to all and not behindpaywalls.[41]
She has described herself as a devoutpirate and thinks thatcopyright law prevents the free exchange of information online and the free distribution of knowledge on the Internet.[41][42][43] In 2018, she asked supporters of Sci-Hub to join their localPirate Party in order to fight for copyright laws to be changed.[44]
Elbakyan has stated that she is inspired bycommunist ideals,[5][45] and considers the common ownership of ideas to be essential forscientific progress.[46] In her 2016 interview toVox, she said: "I like the idea of communism, and the idea that knowledge should be common and not intellectual property is very relevant. That is especially true for information. Research articles are used for communication in science. But the word 'communication' implies common ownership by itself."[3] She referenced the work ofRobert Merton, who considered communism to be a part ofscientific ethos.[46][47] According to her, Sci-Hub is fighting for communism in science and against the current state of things when knowledge has become the private property of corporations, because knowledge belongs to everyone.[48]
Elbakyan justified Sci-Hub by saying that lack of universal access to academic knowledge violates Article 27 of the United Nations'Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that "everyone has the right freely to … share in scientific advancement and its benefits."[46][41][49][50][51][52][53]
She has stated that she supports a strong state which can stand up to theWestern world, and that she does not want "the scientists of Russia and of my native Kazakhstan to share the fates of the scientists of Iraq, Libya, and Syria, that were 'helped' by the United States to become more democratic."[54] In 2012, she supportedPutin's politics,[46] but in 2018, she expressed support for thePirate Party of Russia,[44] which is in opposition to Putin.[55] A few months before theRussian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when asked in an interview if she was still loyal to Putin, she responded that she is neither aligned with Putin nor with the Russian liberal opposition, reiterating that she identifies herself as a communist.[56]
Elbakyan was in conflict with the liberal, pro-Western wing of the Russian scientific community.[8] According to her interview, she was attacked on the Internet by 'science popularizers' who supported liberal views that led to the shutdown of Sci-Hub in Russia in 2017 for a few days.[58] In particular, Elbakyan was strongly critical of the formerDynasty Foundation (shut down in 2015) and its associated figures. She believes that the foundation was politicized, tied toRussia's liberal opposition, and fit thelegal definition of a "foreign agent". Dynasty's founder, in her opinion, financed researchers whose political views agreed with its own.[54] Elbakyan states that after she began to investigate the foundation's activities and published her findings online, she became the target of acyberharassment campaign by Dynasty's supporters.[59]
In December 2019,The Washington Post reported that Elbakyan was under investigation by theUS Justice Department for suspected ties to Russia's military intelligence arm, the GRU, to steal U.S. military secrets from defense contractors.[60] Elbakyan has denied this, saying that Sci-Hub "is not in any way directly affiliated with Russian or some other country's intelligence," but noting that "of course, there could be some indirect help. The same as with donations, anyone can send them; they are completely anonymous, so I do not know who exactly is donating to Sci-Hub. There could be some help that I'm simply unaware of. I can only add that I write all of Sci-Hub code and design myself and I'm doing the server's configuration."[61]
On May 8, 2021, Elbakyan tweeted that theFBI had served a subpoena to Apple seeking heriCloud data. The tweet included a screengrab of the notice from Apple.[62] The tweet was retweeted byEdward Snowden, who commented: "Members of Congress should be making calls about this. Journalists should be asking the White House and DOJ questions. The founder of Sci-hub — unquestionably one of the most important sites for academics in the world — should not be subject to persecution for their work."[63]
In December 2016,Nature named Elbakyan as one of the10 people who most mattered in science that year.[9] Some researchers who use Sci-Hub thank Elbakyan in the Acknowledgments section of their papers.[64]
Elbakyan has several biological species named in her honor:
Idiogramma elbakyanae, a species ofparasitoid wasps discovered by Russian and Mexicanentomologists in 2017.[71] Elbakyan was offended by this, saying that "the real parasites are scientific publishers, and Sci-Hub, on the contrary, fights for equal access to scientific information."[72] The Russian entomologist responded that he supports Sci-Hub and naming was not an insult.[73] The article says that "The species is named in honour of Alexandra Elbakyan (Kazakhstan/Russia), creator of the web-site Sci-Hub, in recognition of her contribution to making scientific knowledge available for all researchers."[71]
Spigelia elbakyaniae [d], a species offlowering plant from Mexico discovered in 2020.[76][77] (At firstSpigelia elbakyanii, then changed by the authors because the "correct termination, however, for an epithet dedicated to a woman (Alexandra Elbakyan) is-iae, instead of-ii".[78]
Elbakyan was nominated twice forJohn Maddox Prize and made it to the final shortlist. Some researchers say that Elbakyan deserves aNobel Prize for her work.[13][82][83] Wildlife scientist T R Shankar Raman has stated in an interview: "I am not a fan of the Nobel Prizes, given they have their own biases and have failed to adequately acknowledge scientific contributions of women, for example. But given that its stated purpose is to award those who have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind, Alexandra Elbakyan certainly qualifies."[84]
In 2023 Elbakyan received the Award for Access to Scientific Knowledge from theElectronic Frontier Foundation for her "vital work in helping to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people."[85]
^ab"Transcript and translation of Sci-Hub presentation".University of North Texas.Archived from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved1 January 2017.We have a recent addition to our lineup of speakers that we'll start off the day with: Alexandra Elbakyan. As many of you know, Alexandra is a Kazakhstani graduate student, computer programmer, and the creator of the controversial Sci-Hub site.
^Coralie Trinh Thi (2016)."Alexandra Elbakyan: la pirate scientifique" (in French). Archived fromthe original on 11 January 2017.Née en 1988 au Kazakhstan... elle étudie les neurosciences à Astana et son université n'a pas les moyens de payer l'abonnement aux publications des éditeurs scientifiques. Pour son projet de recherche (l'interactivité cerveau-machine), elle aurait dû acheter chaque article autour de 30 dollars – un prix faramineux quand on sait qu'il faut consulter des dizaines ou des centaines d'articles. Elle n'a qu'une solution: les pirater
^"Bacteria Hunt:A multimodal, multiparadigm BCI game"(PDF).University of Twente. p. 22.Archived(PDF) from the original on 17 February 2019. Retrieved17 February 2019.Alexandra A. Elbakyan graduated from KazNTU with a bachelor's degree in IT in June 2009. She conducted a study regarding person identification by EEG in her final year thesis. She is going to continue her research in brain-computer interfaces and brain implants
^Gameiro, Denise Neves (4 June 2016)."This 27-year-old Woman is Shaking up the Scientific Publishing Industry".Labiotech.eu. Archived fromthe original on 11 January 2017.Alexandra Elbakyan, a 27-year-old researcher from Kazakhstan...was studying 'Neuroscience and Consciousness' in labs at Georgia Tech (US) and University of Freiburg (Germany)...she was forced to pirate papers for herself and other researchers
^ab"Opinion | Should All Research Papers Be Free?".The New York Times. 12 March 2016.ISSN0362-4331.Archived from the original on 31 October 2016. Retrieved3 March 2018.DRAWING comparisons to Edward Snowden, a graduate student from Kazakhstan named Alexandra Elbakyan is believed to be hiding out in Russia after illegally leaking millions of documents. While she didn't reveal state secrets, she took a stand for the public's right to know by providing free online access to just about every scientific paper ever published, on topics ranging from acoustics to zymology.
^Bohannon, John (29 April 2016). "Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone".Science.352 (6285):508–512.doi:10.1126/science.aaf5664.PMID27126020.Elbakyan also answered nearly every question I had about her operation of the website, interaction with users, and even her personal life. Among the few things she would not disclose is her current location, because she is at risk of financial ruin, extradition, and imprisonment because of a lawsuit launched by Elsevier last year.
^"Scientist vs. publisher: Sci-Hub reveals flaws in academia – The Miscellany News". 6 February 2019.Archived from the original on 11 February 2019. Retrieved28 October 2021.As a devout pirate, I think that copyright should be abolished. At least some corrections to the laws should be made that prohibit prosecutions or injunctions against free distribution of scientific knowledge and educational resources
^"Fighting for Communism in Science - BPR Interviews: Alexandra Elbakyan".Brown Political Review. 16 April 2021.Archived from the original on 8 May 2021. Retrieved28 October 2021.From the very beginning, it's been my dream that Sci-Hub would facilitate long-lasting changes in the copyright laws that have been used to stop the free exchange of information online. We can have a discussion when copyright is used to stop the free distribution of movies and music, but if the law is against science and knowledge, there is nothing to discuss. Sci-Hub has made obvious that copyright prevents the development of science, free academic discussion on the Internet, and the free exchange of research knowledge in the form of articles and books. So what is the best thing we can do? It is to eliminate copyright law and allow the free distribution of knowledge on the Internet, and the free operation of websites like Sci-Hub. Sci-Hub's main crime is that it allows the free reading of academic journals and books on the Internet. That shouldn't be a crime in the first place.
^abcde"How one perplexing pirate is plundering the publishers".The Medical Republic. 6 February 2019.Archived from the original on 10 February 2019. Retrieved26 October 2021.We were waiting for a call from either a master lawbreaker or a hero of science, depending on who you ask.
^Belluz, Julia (18 February 2016)."Meet the woman who's breaking the law to make science free for all".Vox.Archived from the original on 19 February 2016. Retrieved28 October 2021.Later I became acquainted with the works of Robert K. Merton, the founder of sociology of science. Back in the first half of the 20th century Merton noticed that common ownership of knowledge (i.e., communism) is one of the essential features of science that makes it work. He found the concept of intellectual property to be self-contradictory.
^"Fighting for Communism in Science - BPR Interviews: Alexandra Elbakyan".Brown Political Review. 16 April 2021.Archived from the original on 8 May 2021. Retrieved28 October 2021.Knowledge today has become the private property of corporations such as the publisher Elsevier. These corporations are making a lot of money, while researchers are poor and exploited. Sci-Hub is against all of this. Knowledge belongs to everyone and all people should have equal access to it. Sci-Hub is fighting for communism in science.
^abSnowden, Edward (8 May 2021)."Members of Congress should be making calls about this".Twitter.Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved21 October 2021.Members of Congress should be making calls about this. Journalists should be asking the White House and DOJ questions. The founder of Sci-hub — unquestionably one of the most important sites for academics in the world — should not be subject to persecution for their work.
^Kravets, David (3 April 2016)."A spiritual successor to Aaron Swartz is angering publishers all over again".Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Archived fromthe original on 11 January 2017. Retrieved18 April 2016.Just as Swartz did, this hacker is freeing tens of millions of research articles from paywalls, metaphorically hoisting a middle finger to the academic publishing industry, which, by the way, has again reacted with labels like 'hacker' and 'criminal.' Meet Alexandra Elbakyan, the developer of Sci-Hub, a Pirate Bay-like site for the science nerd. It's a portal that offers free and searchable access "to most publishers, especially well-known ones."
^Varela-Jaramillo A, Streicher JW, Venegas PJ, Ron SR (2025) Three new species of torrent treefrogs (Anura, Hylidae) of the Hyloscirtus bogotensis group from the eastern Andean slopes and the biogeographic history of the genus. ZooKeys 1231: 233-292.https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1231.124926
^Singh, Sidharth (18 September 2021)."Will Indian researchers lose free access to scientific papers?".Newslaundry.Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved26 October 2021.Abi Tamim Vanak, a research associate at the Ashoka Trust for Research on Ecology and the Environment, Bangalore, went so far as to argue that Elbakyan deserved a Nobel Prize. "SciHub has been my go to resource for accessing paywalled scientific literature. Alexandra Elbakyan has done more for science than all the top publishing houses in the world. She has freed knowledge from the clutches of corporate greed," he added. "She deserves a Nobel Prize."
^"Commercial Science Journals: A Luxury Market?".SBMT - Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical.Archived from the original on 26 October 2021. Retrieved26 October 2021.SBMT: Would you nominate Alexandra Elbakyan, from Sci-Hub for the Nobel Prize. If so, how to start a global movement for this? Dr. TR Shankar Raman: I am not a fan of the Nobel Prizes, given they have their own biases and have failed to adequately acknowledge scientific contributions of women, for example. But given that its stated purpose is to award those who have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind, Alexandra Elbakyan certainly qualifies.
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