Also, if you're not in a rush, just email the authors!
A vast majority of professors and researchers hate the publishing industry as much as anyone, and will be happy to shoot you a pdf if you're interested in their work!
The truly worst that could happen (in the dating scenario, that is) is that they say yes, but then turn out to be a serial killer and you're the next victim.
They will likely say yes, thanks for being interested in my research. If they're like me, they didn't respond because they're overworked and tired, so politely ask one more time
My request to a Carnegie Mellon (#CMU) researcher was ignored. The ACM website published someone’s work which was said to include source code. Then the code was omitted from the attached ZIP file, which only contained another copy of the article. I asked the lead researcher (a prof) for the code and was ignored. Also asked the other researchers (apparently students), who also ignored the request. The code would have made it possible to reproduce the research and verify it.
ACM also ignored my request and also neglected to fix the misinfo (the claim that source code is available).
It seems like this should taint the research in some way. Why don’t they want people reproducing the research? I mean, if the idea is that scientific research is “peer reviewed” for integrity, it seems like a façade. Or is there some kind of 3rd party who would call this out?
When I need it, I know how to pirate, but I am privileged enough in terms of my institution that I can get most of anything I want (I mostly pirate for family needing niche things in engineering, and I am in the humanities).
BUT, I had this one occasion that both validated my feelings about the system and fucking infuriated me. A professor from an institution that did not have the right subscriptions emailed me asking for an article I published, because they wanted to assign it for a seminar, but could not legitimately access it. That made me lose my shit. I didn't get paid, neither did the editors or peer reviewers, but you know, god forbid someone read it for free. Which is when I realized I didn't even have final copy myself, so I had to go to JS**, download it, spend some time cleaning the "downloaded from XYZ.XYZ.XYZ.XYZ address at XYZ institution" footers on the PDF, sent It to them and encourage them to further pirate that shit