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

From: David Goodman <dgoodman_at_Princeton.EDU>
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:48:11 -0400

Stevan should think why Elsevier permits postings
on institutional but not national archives.
I suggest they do it because the want to limit
the availability and use of self-archiving.

In the long run, they want to discourage the
growth of archives that might become a major
alternative source of journal content, and they
see this as being the national and
disciplinary archives. After all, many readers
use and cite arXiv as more convenient even
when the published papers are available, and the
growth of a similar facility in other
subjects would produce similar results.

For institutional archiving, they aren't worried.
There is still no effective way of finding these
materials except for the subjects covered by
CiteSeer, there is no consistency in their use,
and readers do not know where to go as a matter
of course. They are almost the last
desperate chance--just one step up from author
web sites, or writing to the author for a
copy. They will never provide access to all the
material in a subject--it will depend on the
author and the institution. Unless you know
whether the author is at one of the few
institutions that require it, you are not assured of finding a copy.

In other words, they want low quality archiving
only. From their commercial perspective,
that makes sense. But Steven regards the
institutional archives as preferable. Perhaps he
does so because green self-archiving requires the
perpetuation of the present commercial
publishers--if nobody pays to use their material,
there will be no organized peer-reviewing.
Does he realize he is actually encouraging the
continuation of high-cost journal publishing
from the most expensive commercial publishers?

Think of it this way: if institutional archiving
provided a high quality system, would Elsevier
support it?

David Goodman, Ph.D., M.L.S.
previously:
Bibliographer and Research Librarian
Princeton University Library

dgoodman_at_princeton.edu


----- Original Message -----
From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Saturday, July 14, 2007 7:35 pm
Subject: [SOAF] Elsevier Still Solidly on the Side of the Angels on Open Access
To: SPARC Open Access Forum <SPARC-OAForum_at_arl.org>

> 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
> guidedoes 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 authorâ^À^Ùs 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
> commercialpurposes 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
> workto include full acknowledgment of the article's original
> publicationin 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,
> physicsand 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
> postingincludes 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
> Accessto 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 - 03:22:34 BST

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