Wuhan University Brought Sic-Hub Database from Shanghai Jiaotong University
Recently, the 5GH Team obtained a document showing that Wuhan University purchased an 80TB Sci-Hub paper dataset from Shanghai Jiaotong University in 2025 for a tender price of 70,000 RMB, via a "single-source" procurement.
Sci-Hub, founded by Kazakh researcher Alexandra Elbakyan in 2011, is currently the world's largest academic paper "shadow library." It bypasses publishers' paywalls to provide users with free access to tens of millions of research papers and books. Its goal is to achieve barrier-free access to all published scientific knowledge, though it has been highly controversial due to copyright infringement.
Despite widespread criticism from the academic community over the massive profits academic publishers reap by monopolizing global academic publishing, the question of whether universities should be permitted to purchase copyright-infringing products for academic research also deserves our earnest reflection.