[Irtalk] Fwd: [EIFL-OA] Global coalition of organizations denounce Elsevier's new "sharing" policy

Wed May 20 16:46:50 SAST 2015

FYI.

*Hilton Gibson*
Ubuntu Linux Systems Administrator
Stellenbosch University Library
http://staff.lib.sun.ac.za/~hgibson/docs/cv/cv.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Iryna Kuchma <iryna.kuchma at eifl.net>
Date: 20 May 2015 at 16:27
Subject: [EIFL-OA] Global coalition of organizations denounce Elsevier's
new "sharing" policy
To: hilton.gibson at gmail.com
Cc: EIFL - Open Access program announcement and discussion list <
eifloa at lists.eifl.net>

EIFL joins a global coalition of organizations that denounce Elsevier's new
"sharing" policy.
Please see the press release and associated statement speaking out against
Elsevier’s new "sharing” policy. The pdf of the release is also attached.
We encourage you to distribute to others, and sign onto the statement on
the COAR website:
https://www.coar-repositories.org/activities/advocacy-leadership/petition-against-elseviers-sharing-policy/

For Immediate Release                          Contact:               Ranit
Schmelzer (SPARC)
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
 202-538-1065

sparcmedia at arl.org

               Katharina Müller (COAR)

               49 551 39-22215

               office at coar-repositories.org

*NEW POLICY FROM ELSEVIER IMPEDES OPEN ACCESS AND SHARING*

*Global coalition of organizations denounce the policy and urge Elsevier to
revise it*

*Washington, DC and Göttingen, Germany* – Elsevier’s new sharing and hosting
 policy
<http://www.elsevier.com/connect/elsevier-updates-its-policies-perspectives-and-services-on-article-sharing>
 represents a significant obstacle to the dissemination and use of research
knowledge, and creates unnecessary barriers for Elsevier published authors
in complying with funders’ open access policies, according to an analysis
by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) and
the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR).

“Elsevier’s policy is in direct conflict with the global trend towards open
access and serves only to dilute the benefits of openly sharing research
results,” said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC and Kathleen
Shearer, Executive Director of COAR, in a joint statement. “Elsevier claims
that the policy advances sharing but in fact, it does the opposite. We
strongly urge Elsevier to revise it.”

The new stance marks a significant departure from Elsevier’s initial
policy, established in 2004, which allowed authors to self-archive their
final accepted manuscripts of peer-reviewed articles in institutional
repositories without delay.  While the stated purpose of the new revision
is, in part, to roll back an ill-conceived 2012 amendment prohibiting
authors at institutions that have adopted campus-wide Open Access policies
from immediate self archiving, the net result of the new policy is that
Elsevier has placed greater restrictions on sharing articles.

Twenty-three groups today released the following statement in opposition to
the policy:

“On April 30, 2015, Elsevier announced a new sharing and hosting policy for
Elsevier journal articles. This policy represents a significant obstacle to
the dissemination and use of research knowledge, and creates unnecessary
barriers for Elsevier published authors in complying with funders’ open
access policies. In addition, the policy has been adopted without any
evidence that immediate sharing of articles has a negative impact on
publishers’ subscriptions.

“Despite the claim by Elsevier that the policy advances sharing, it
actually does the opposite. The policy imposes unacceptably long embargo
periods of up to 48 months for some journals. It also requires authors to
apply a "non-commercial and no derivative works" license for each article
deposited into a repository, greatly inhibiting the re-use value of these
articles. Any delay in the open availability of research articles curtails
scientific progress and places unnecessary constraints on delivering the
benefits of research back to the public.

“Furthermore, the policy applies to "all articles previously published and
those published in the future" making it even more punitive for both
authors and institutions. This may also lead to articles that are currently
available being suddenly embargoed and inaccessible to readers.

“As organizations committed to the principle that access to information
advances discovery, accelerates innovation and improves education, we
support the adoption of policies and practices that enable the immediate,
barrier free access to and reuse of scholarly articles. This policy is in
direct conflict with the global trend towards open access and serves only
to dilute the benefits of openly sharing research results.

“We strongly urge Elsevier to reconsider this policy and we encourage other
organizations and individuals to express their opinions.” The statement is
available here
<https://www.coar-repositories.org/activities/advocacy-leadership/petition-against-elseviers-sharing-policy/>
 and we welcome others to show their support by also endorsing it.

The statement has been signed by the following groups:
COAR: Confederation of Open Access Repositories
SPARC: Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
ACRL: Association of College and Research Libraries
ALA: American Library Association
ARL: Association of Research Libraries
Association of Southeastern Research Libraries
Australian Open Access Support Group
IBICT: Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology
CARL: Canadian Association of Research Libraries
CLACSO: Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales
COAPI: Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (USA)
EIFL
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Greater Western Library Alliance
LIBER: European Research Library Association
National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences
OpenAIRE
Open Data Hong Kong
Research Libraries UK
SANLiC: South African National Licensing Consortium
University of St Andrews Library

SPARC®, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is an
international alliance of academic and research libraries working to
correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system. Developed by the
Association of Research Libraries, SPARC has become a catalyst for change.
Its pragmatic focus is to stimulate the emergence of new scholarly
communication models that expand the dissemination of scholarly research
and reduce financial pressures on libraries. More information can be found
at http://www.sparc.arl.org.

COAR, the Confederation of Open Access Repositories, is an international
association with over 100 members and partners from five continents
representing universities, research institutions, government research
funders, and others. COAR’s mission is to enhance the visibility and
application of research outputs through a global network of Open Access
digital repositories. COAR brings together the major repository initiatives
in order to align policies and practices and acts as a global voice for the
repository community.

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