Re: Elsevier Still Solidly on the Side of the Angels on Open Access

From: <matt.hodgkinson_at_biomedcentral.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:48:33 -0400

I'm not sure that this policy is as ideal as Stevan states.

"Elsevier-published authors employed by
corporations may post their revised personal
manuscript versions of their final articles to
their corporate intranets if they are secure and do not allow public access".
Companies aren't allowed to publicly
self-archive. This means that readers cannot
access a free version of any of these articles,
and the companies need to buy reprints from the
journal if they want to distribute their article.

"To preserve the integrity of the official record
of publication, the final published version of an
article as it appears (in PDF or HTML) in an
Elsevier journal will continue to be available only on an Elsevier site"
This is an amusing argument. Does the integrity
of the publication record really increase by
insisting that authors post versions that must
differ from the 'official' published version?

"Note such posting may not be for commercial
purposes and may not be to any external, third-party website".
Posting to PubMed Central or another central
repository is not allowed. This reduces the
likelihood that readers will be aware that the self-archived version exists.

Aren't these angels' wings just a bit grubby?


p.s. "some Elsevier clinical and biomedical
journals, including The Lancet and Cell Press journals, follow the
guidelines of the International Committee of
Medical Journal Editors and do not consider for
publication papers that have already been posted publicly"

This is not Elsevier's fault, but does anyone
know whether the ICMJE guidelines really do
prohibit pre-prints? Their guidelines say that
"Most journals do not wish to receive papers on
work that has already been reported in large part
in a published article or is contained in another
paper that has been submitted or accepted for
publication elsewhere, in print or in electronic
media". Many journals do not consider pre-prints
to be 'publication'; is the prohibition by the
Lancet and Cell Press simply an illiberal reading of those guidelines?


-----Original Message-----
From: SPARC Open Access Forum [mailto:SPARC-OAForum_at_arl.org]On Behalf Of
Stevan Harnad
Sent: 15 July 2007 00:35
To: SPARC Open Access Forum
Subject: [SOAF] Elsevier Still Solidly on the Side of the Angels on Open
Access


The following re-posting from Peter Suber's OA News
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_07_08_fosblogarchive.html#66675142481419092
reconfirms that Elsevier is squarely on the side of the angels insofar
as OA is concerned: Elsevier is and remains solidly Green on author
self-archiving. So if there is any finger of blame to be pointed,
it is to be pointed straight at the research community itself, not at
Elsevier. If researchers desire Open Access, and fail to provide it
by self-archiving their own articles, it is entirely their own fault,
certainly not Elsevier's.

And if researchers' institutions and funders are aggrieved that their
researchers are not providing OA, yet they have failed to mandate that
they do so, there is again no one else to fault but themselves.

Read on. And then if you are a researcher and minded to complain about
the absence of OA, please don't waste keystrokes demonizing publishers
like Elsevier, or signing pious declarations, statements, manifestos,
or boycott-threats: Direct your keystrokes instead toward the
self-archiving of your own articles in your own Institutional Repository!

-------------------------------------------
Elsevier restates its self-archiving policy

Ways to Use Journal Articles Published by Elsevier: A Practical Guide,
Elsevier, Version 1.0, June 2007. (Thanks to Rea Devakos.)
http://www.elsevier.com/framework_editors/pdfs/waystousearticles.pdf

Elsevier compiled this guide for its journal editors, but it may also
be useful for authors and readers.

Excerpt:

Elsevier believes it is important to communicate clearly about our
policies regarding the use of articles we publish....However, this guide
does not amend, replace or cancel any part of an existing license with
Elsevier....

Authors publishing in Elsevier journals retain wide rights to continue
to use their works to support scientific advancement, teaching and
scholarly communication.
An author can, without asking permission, do the following after
publication of the author's article in an Elsevier-published
journal:

Make copies (print or electronic) of the authorâEUR(tm)s article for
personal use or the author's own classroom teaching.
Make copies of the article and distribute them (including via email) to
known research colleagues for their personal use but not for commercial
purposes as described below [PS: omitted here].
Present the article at a meeting or conference and distribute copies of
the article to attendees.
Allow the author's employer to use the article in full or in part
for other intracompany use (e.g., training).
Retain patent and trademark rights and rights to any process or
procedure described in the article.
Include the article in full or in part in a thesis or dissertation.
Use the article in full or in part in a printed compilation of the
author's, such as collected writings and lecture notes.
Use the article in full or in part to prepare other derivative works,
including expanding the article to book-length form, with each such work
to include full acknowledgment of the article's original publication
in the Elsevier journal.
Post, as described below, the article to certain websites or servers....
Web posting of articles

Elsevier understands researchers want widespread distribution of their
work and supports authors by enabling such distribution within the
context of orderly peer review and publication.

Most journals published by Elsevier will consider (for peer review and
publication) papers already posted in pre-publication versions to the
Web. Pre-publication posting is common practice in, for example, physics
and mathematics. However, some Elsevier clinical and biomedical
journals, including The Lancet and Cell Press journals, follow the
guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and
do not consider for publication papers that have already been posted
publicly. Anyone with a question regarding pre-publication posting and
subsequent submission of a paper to an Elsevier journal should consult
that journal's instructions to authors or contact the editor.

An author can, without asking permission, do the following with the
author's article that has been or will be published in an Elsevier
journal:

Post a pre-print version of the article on Internet websites including
electronic pre-print servers, and retain indefinitely this version on
such servers or sites (unless prohibited in a specific Elsevier
journal's instructions to authors).
Post a personal manuscript version of the article on the author's
personal or institutional website or server, provided each such posting
includes a link to the article's Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and
includes a complete citation for the article. This means an author can
update a personal manuscript version (e.g., in Word or TeX format) of
the article to reflect changes made during the peer-review and editing
process. Note such posting may not be for commercial purposes and may
not be to any external, third-party website.
Elsevier-published authors employed by corporations may post their
revised personal manuscript versions of their final articles to their
corporate intranets if they are secure and do not allow public access.

This policy permitting open posting of revised personal manuscript
versions applies to authors publishing articles in any Elsevier
journals, including The Lancet and Cell Press journals.

If an article has multiple authors, each author has the same posting
rights.

To preserve the integrity of the official record of publication, the
final published version of an article as it appears (in PDF or HTML) in
an Elsevier journal will continue to be available only on an Elsevier
site....

Peter Suber, OA News
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_07_08_fosblogarchive.html#66675142481419092
---------------

      Pertinent Prior AmSci Topic Thread:
      "Elsevier Gives Authors Green Light for Open Access Self-Archiving"
      http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/3771.html

      Cf: "Poisoned Apple"
      http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/self-faq/#32.Poisoned

      "A Keystroke Koan For Our Open Access Times"
      http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/3062.html
      http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/

Stevan Harnad
AMERICAN SCIENTIST OPEN ACCESS FORUM:
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html
      http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/

UNIVERSITIES and RESEARCH FUNDERS:
If you have adopted or plan to adopt a policy of providing Open Access
to your own research article output, please describe your policy at:
      http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php
      http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/71-guid.html
      http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/136-guid.html

OPEN-ACCESS-PROVISION POLICY:
      BOAI-1 ("Green"): Publish your article in a suitable toll-access journal
      http://romeo.eprints.org/
OR
      BOAI-2 ("Gold"): Publish your article in an open-access journal if/when
      a suitable one exists.
      http://www.doaj.org/
AND
      in BOTH cases self-archive a supplementary version of your article
      in your own institutional repository.
      http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/
      http://archives.eprints.org/
      http://openaccess.eprints.org/
Received on Wed Jul 18 2007 - 03:38:50 BST

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