Ross Mounce

This morning, a PhD student asked me if I could get access to copy of:  
"Bayes factors unmask highly variable information content, bias, and
extreme influence in phylogenomic analyses" by Jeremy M Brown and Robert
C Thomson which was first published online (ahead of print) on 20th
December 2016. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syw101

The student urgently needs access to this work because it relates very
closely to some of his research and he has a manuscript in the final
stages of preparation doing something similar or related to this work.

As of 23-01-2017, this paper is seemingly completely missing from OUP's
new website (they appear to have migrated all journals to this base URL
now: https://academic.oup.com ) and they have failed to put in place any
redirect links that resolve to where this article is, if it is online at
all. This paper may have been missing/offline/unavailable since January
13th 2017 -- remember it has not appeared in print yet, thus it is
*only* electronically available.

Old links to it that used to work include:  
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syw101>  
<http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/11/14/sysbio.syw101.abstract>

The society itself knows this article exists, it tweeted about it:

> Advance access: Bayes factors unmask highly variable information
> content, bias, and extreme influence in phylogeno...
> <https://t.co/Pv6Yq6NAZs>
>
> --- Society of Systematic Biologists (@systbiol) [December 21,
> 2016](https://twitter.com/systbiol/status/811465777656332288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

A third-party website also acknowledges the existence of this article:  
<http://www.pubpdf.com/pub/28003531/Bayes-factors-unmask-highly-variable-information-content-bias-and-extreme-influence-in-phylogenomic->

**Sci Hub preserves access to paid-for scholarly content, when the
original publisher fails to do so**

Interestingly, Stian Håklev alerted me to the fact that the full text of
this otherwise missing paper is available via Sci Hub
<https://twitter.com/houshuang/status/823478936030052352>

Direct Sci Hub link to this paper here:
<http://dx.doi.org.sci-hub.cc/10.1093/sysbio/syw101>

It is deeply ironic that my only available access to an article that my
library (and thousands of other libraries and personal subscribers
around the world!) has *paid* a publisher to make available is at a
so-called "pirate library" like Sci-Hub. Why do we pay large sums to
legacy publishers for incompetent service provision, whilst our
libraries pay nothing to competent, low-cost archival services like
Sci-Hub? "Lots of copies keeps things safe" as they say.

**Final questions...**

HOW MANY OTHER PUBLISHED PAPERS ARE NOW "MISSING" (NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE)
AT JOURNALS PUBLISHED BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS? IT STRIKES ME THAT
THIS PROBABLY ISN'T AN ISOLATED CASE -- IT SEEMS THAT OUP HAVE NOT USED
ROBUST AUTOMATED PROCESSES TO MIGRATE CONTENT AND CREATE APPROPRIATE
REDIRECT LINKS.

BUT EVIDENCE OF ABSENCE IS HARD. WE HAVE ONE ROBUSTLY EVIDENCED CASE
HERE BUT THERE ARE PROBABLY MORE.

PLEASE HELP FIND MISSING ARTICLES SO WE CAN ASSESS THE TRUE SCALE OF THE
LOSS OF SERVICE HERE.

LIBRARIES AND INSTITUTIONS AROUND THE WORLD PAY SUBSCRIPTIONS TO HAVE
ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO THIS CONTENT. THIS IS CLEARLY A SIGNIFICANT BREACH
OF SERVICE. WILL OUP BE MADE TO PAY COMPENSATION FOR THIS PROFESSIONAL
INCOMPETENCE?


This morning, a PhD student asked me if I could get access to copy of: “Bayes factors unmask highly variable information content, bias, and extreme influence in phylogenomic analyses” by Jeremy M Brown and Robert C Thomson which was first published online (ahead of print) on 20th December 2016.

Messages de Rogue Scholar

Oxford University Press have failed to preserve access to the scholarly record