What do users prefer: Google Scholar or black open access? A comparative log analysis study

Abstract

The study aims to examine the comparative usage trends of black open-access sites (Sci-Hub, LibGen) and Google Scholar globally. The design of the study was ‘Quantitative’, and the transaction log data of LibGen, Sci-Hub and Google Scholar were used to achieve the objectives of the study. Three months log data of these three open-access sites were collected through the ‘SimilarWeb’ tool. This study collected data on traffic and engagement, top-ranked websites, average duration of visits, bounce rates, gender distribution, age distribution, geographical trends and topics searched in Sci-Hub, LibGen and Google Scholar. The findings of the study indicate that Sci-Hub and LibGen (Black Open Access) were the most used websites globally for searching scholarly content in comparison to Google Scholar. Sci-Hub has the highest number of monthly visitors and the lowest bounce rate as compared with LibGen and Google Scholar. Male users accessed Sci-Hub, LibGen and Google Scholar more as compared with female users. The results show that the United States, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, India and China are the five most popular countries that actively use Google Scholar. However, Sci-Hub’s use was more in China and India, respectively. The findings of the study imply that librarians and academics need to create awareness among students, researchers and academics about black open-access sites and copyright violations. Publishers should struggle more to provide gold open-access scholarly articles to reduce the use of illegal sites.