van·i·ty n. pl. van·i·ties
1. The quality or condition of being vain.
2. Excessive pride in one’s appearance or accomplishments; conceit.
3. Lack of usefulness, worth, or effect; worthlessness.
Okay, maybe it’s not vanity, but if you are researching something you can pretty much count on a researcher’s vanity in that they will post their articles on some personal website for you to check out. I mean, when a researcher submits an article, it’ll sit in some professional peer-reviewed journal that you can’t afford or can’t see because of some embargo. Your library can’t afford it, and neither can you. If you look hard though, you can count on the researcher posting it where you can get to it.
Okay, so maybe you don’t care, but I am grateful for their vanity – especially since I need to read it.