Data from: Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone

In increasing numbers, researchers around the world are turning to
Sci-Hub, the controversial website that hosts 50 million pirated papers
and counting. Now, with server log data from Alexandra Elbakyan, the
neuroscientist who created Sci-Hub in 2011 as a 22-year-old graduate
student in Kazakhstan, Science addresses some basic questions: Who are
Sci-Hub's users, where are they, and what are they reading? The
Sci-Hub data provide the first detailed view of what is becoming the
world's de facto open-access research library. Among the revelations
that may surprise both fans and foes alike: Sci-Hub users are not limited
to the developing world. Some critics of Sci-Hub have complained that many
users can access the same papers through their libraries but turn to
Sci-Hub instead—for convenience rather than necessity. The data provide
some support for that claim. Over the 6 months leading up to March,
Sci-Hub served up 28 million documents, with Iran, China, India, Russia,
and the United States the leading requestors.

全球范围内，越来越多的科研人员正转向Sci-Hub——这是一座坐拥5000万余篇盗版学术论文且数量仍在持续增长的争议性网站。如今，依托于2011年以哈萨克斯坦22岁研究生身份创立Sci-Hub的神经科学家亚历山德拉·埃尔巴科扬（Alexandra Elbakyan）提供的服务器日志数据，《科学》（Science）期刊解答了若干基本问题：Sci-Hub的用户群体构成如何、用户分布于何地，以及他们正在阅读哪些文献？
此次公开的Sci-Hub服务器数据，首次详尽展现了这个正逐渐成为全球事实上的开放获取（Open Access）学术图书馆的平台全貌。其中一项或令该平台支持者与反对者皆感意外的发现为：Sci-Hub的用户并非仅局限于发展中国家。
部分Sci-Hub的批评者曾指责，许多用户本可通过所属机构图书馆获取同类文献，却转而使用Sci-Hub——此举更多是出于便捷性而非必要需求。此次公开的数据为这一说法提供了一定佐证。在截至当年3月的6个月统计周期内，Sci-Hub共提供了2800万篇文献下载服务，其中伊朗、中国、印度、俄罗斯与美国的请求量位居全球前列。