[Open-access] How to Block Readcube and Why

[Ross Mounce]

This has nothing to do with hybrid open access-ness per se - although,
importing hybrid open access CC BY rights-unencumbered articles into a DRM
system is pretty sinister re-enclosure IMO.

All articles via the "get PDF" link -> Readcube whether they are closed
access, fauxpen access or hybrid open access.

I fear some readers will now be tricked into using Readcube, not realising
the rights they are giving-up, and that their reading habits & annotations
may now be tracked.

Wiley have basically rolled-out Readcube as the default for 'PDF' across
1100 of their journals (all?). Readers did not ask them to do this and I
suspect were not properly consulted.

They use JavaScript to re-write all "Get PDF" links displayed on article
landing pages to direct to Readcube rather than actual PDF. If you have the
rights to, you can download PDF, but only from within the Readcube system.
One is effectively forced to go through Readcube to access PDF.

But if you turn off JavaScript the "get PDF" links revert back to going
directly to real PDF.


Non-consenting coercion of Readcube-use is just plain wrong. Not to mention
false advertising - "get PDF" -> Readcube is not anyone's definition of
"get PDF".

Best,

Ross


On 20 March 2015 at 09:33, Peter Murray-Rust <
peter.murray.rust at googlemail.com> wrote:

> Does this apply to all papers or only to hybrid Open Access? In either
> case I would expect that it is a change in the conditions of the contract -
> that the publisher is sending an unacceptable substandard product.
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 10:34 PM, Ross Mounce <ross.mounce at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Friends,
>>
>> You may have noticed recently that at some, all(?) Wiley journals, the
>> "get PDF" links have been forcibly, non-consentingly redirecting readers to
>> the Readcube version of the article, NOT the PDF file.
>>
>> I have written a practical guide on 'How to Block Readcube and Why' to
>> explain how to get the direct, one-click link to the real PDF back again
>> (by disabling JavaScript on site). Please share this with friends if you
>> know they are similarly inconvenienced by this issue:
>>
>> http://rossmounce.co.uk/2015/03/19/how-to-block-readcube-and-why/
>>
>> I have also cross-posted to The Winnower, at which you can download a
>> copy of this post in PDF format to enable easy offline sharing with others:
>> https://thewinnower.com/papers/how-to-block-readcube-and-why
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Ross
>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
>> Ross Mounce, PhD
>> Fossils, Phylogeny and Macroevolution Research Group
>> University of Bath, 4 South Building, Lab 1.07
>> http://about.me/rossmounce
>> -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
>>
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>
>
> --
> Peter Murray-Rust
> Reader in Molecular Informatics
> Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
> University of Cambridge
> CB2 1EW, UK
> +44-1223-763069
>



-- 
-- 
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Ross Mounce
Fossils, Phylogeny and Macroevolution Research Group
University of Bath, 4 South Building, Lab 1.07
http://about.me/rossmounce
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
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