Beware of Restrictive Publication Agreements
We've seen that publishing in open access avenues such as SSRN or an institutional repository result in a higher scholarly impact for articles.
But some publishers are reluctant to adopt the model in favor of restrictive publication agreements that protect the bottom line.
InsideHigherEd posted about Elsevier's newly established hosting and sharing policy created in 2015. Academic, library and technology organizations are denouncing a new sharing and hosting policy adopted by publisher Elsevier, saying it undermines open-access policies at colleges and universities and prevents authors from sharing their work.
Many librarians and open-access advocates, however, see the policy as an attack on institutional repositories, where colleges collect and make available research their faculty members produce. The new policy does not allow authors to share their journal article manuscripts publicly through those repositories, only privately “with a colleague or with an invitation-only online group.” Availability through the repositories is subject to journals’ embargo periods, which in some cases last for several years.
Before authors decide to publish with Elsevier, they should take this policy into consideration. Authors should also try to negotiate using a SPARC addendum to retain copyright of their scholarly work.
But some publishers are reluctant to adopt the model in favor of restrictive publication agreements that protect the bottom line.
InsideHigherEd posted about Elsevier's newly established hosting and sharing policy created in 2015. Academic, library and technology organizations are denouncing a new sharing and hosting policy adopted by publisher Elsevier, saying it undermines open-access policies at colleges and universities and prevents authors from sharing their work.
Many librarians and open-access advocates, however, see the policy as an attack on institutional repositories, where colleges collect and make available research their faculty members produce. The new policy does not allow authors to share their journal article manuscripts publicly through those repositories, only privately “with a colleague or with an invitation-only online group.” Availability through the repositories is subject to journals’ embargo periods, which in some cases last for several years.
Before authors decide to publish with Elsevier, they should take this policy into consideration. Authors should also try to negotiate using a SPARC addendum to retain copyright of their scholarly work.
Spot on, Jamie!
ReplyDeleteBeyond just reading and trying to negotiate terms in these terrible contracts, some have taken to boycott Elsevier altogether: http://thecostofknowledge.com/
Other have taken a stance on Elsevier's $2,000+ article-processing charge (APC). When all six editors and 31 board members of the journal "Lingua" resigned after Elsevier rejected their requests for lower APCs, a new petition was opened to try and lower those fees. http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/support-fair-open-access
Just sharing a few other ways author's can retain their roles in the "driver's seat" for their own works.
Thanks!
Thanks for the additional info, Kyle! I saw an article about Lingua but didn't know it was directly related to this issue.
ReplyDelete