GWLA joins COAR's Statement against Elsevier’s sharing policy

Post date: Jun 3, 2015

Organizations around the world denounce Elsevier’s new policy that impedes open access and sharing

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.

Organisational Signatories (updated every weekday here)

  1. COAR: Confederation of Open Access Repositories

  2. SPARC: Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition

  3. ACRL: Association of College and Research Libraries

  4. ALA: American Library Association

  5. ARL: Association of Research Libraries

  6. ASERL: Association of Southeastern Research Libraries

  7. AOASG: Australian Open Access Support Group

  8. IBICT: Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology

  9. CARL: Canadian Association of Research Libraries

  10. CLACSO: Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales

  11. COAPI: Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions

  12. Creative Commons

  13. Creative Commons, USA

  14. Creative Commons, Australia

  15. EIFL: Electronic Information for Libraries

  16. EFF: Electronic Frontier Foundation

  17. GWLA: Greater Western Library Alliance

  18. LIBER: European Research Library Association

  19. National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences

  20. OpenAIRE

  21. Open Data Hong Kong

  22. RLUK: Research Libraries UK

  23. SANLiC: South African National Licensing Consortium

  24. University of St Andrews Library

  25. ANKOS OAIRWG: Anatolian University libraries Consortium. OAIR working Group

  26. University West, Sweden

  27. DLF: Digital Library Federation, USA

  28. ELibUkr, Ukraine

  29. Open Access Network, USA

  30. AusGOAL: Australian Governments Open Access and Licensing Programme

  31. Redalyc.org, Mexico

  32. National Research Foundation of South Africa

  33. Open Book Publishers, United Kingdom

  34. Escola Superior de Educação de Paula Frassinetti, Portugal

  35. Library of the Hospital Prof. Dr. Fernando Fonseca, EPE, Lisbon, Portugal

  36. SLA: Special Libraries Association

  37. OhioLINK, Columbus, USA

  38. Library of the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal

  39. DOAJ

  40. dbv: German Library Association, Germany

  41. SCONUL: Society of College, National and University Libraries, UK

  42. bepress, Berkeley, USA

  43. Center for Digital Research and Scholarship, Columbia University, USA

  44. SPARC Europe

  45. Paperity, Warsaw, Poland

  46. University of Technology Sydney Library, Australia

  47. CAUL: Council of Australian University Librarians

  48. European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA)

  49. The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship, London, UK

  50. Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA

  51. Institutional Repositories Promotion Committee, Japan

  52. University of California Libraries, USA

    1. UC Berkeley Library

    2. UC Davis Library

    3. UC Irvine Libraries

    4. UCLA Library

    5. UC Merced Library

    6. UC Riverside Library

    7. UC San Diego Library

    8. UC San Francisco Library

    9. UC Santa Barbara Library

    10. UC Santa Cruz Library

    11. California Digital Library

  53. medica spa @ cnr, Bologna, Italy

  54. UNIPA – Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy

  55. Biblioteca scuola politecnica-sede architettura Università di Genova, Italy

  56. Cadernos Saúde Coletiva, Spain

  57. Sardegna Ricerche, Italy

  58. Biblioteca di Scienze geo-ambientali e planetarie, Italy

  59. SUNYLA: State University of New York Librarians Association, USA

  60. Canadian Library Association

  61. Carnegie Mellon University, USA

  62. DPLA: Digital Public Library of America

  63. UFRJ: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

  64. Orbis Cascade Alliance

  65. Open Access India

  66. ICSI: Information and Communication Society of India

  67. SALIS: Society for the Advancement of Library and Information Science, India

  68. Associação Brasileira de Saúde Coletiva, Brasil

  69. FCT: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal

  70. BAD – Portuguese Association of Librarians Archivists and Documentalists

  71. USAIN: United States Agricultural Information Network

  72. ENEA: Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development

  73. EUI: European University Institute Library

  74. Policy Online, Australia

  75. University of Liège, Belgium

  76. Universita’ di Camerino, Biblioteca di Scienze, Italy

  77. ANKOS:Anatolian University Libraries Consortium, Turkey

  78. Izmir Institute of Technology, Turkey

  79. University of Pretoria Library Services, South Africa

  80. CSIR: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa

  81. University College Cork, Ireland

  82. Oberlin Group of LIbraries, USA

  83. Cyprus University of Technology

  84. Washington University in St. Louis Libraries

  85. LIASA: Library and Information Association of South Africa

  86. CONUL: Consortium of National & University Libraries, Ireland

  87. Strathmore University Library, Kenya

  88. COUPERIN.ORG, France

  89. Pamukkale University Library Department, Turkey

  90. Bitlis Eren Üniversitesi, Turkey

  91. Karabuk University Library, Turkey

  92. Mevlana University, Turkey

  93. Adnan Menderes University, Turkey

  94. Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland

  95. KCA University Library, Kenya

  96. Library Association of Rijeka, Croatia

  97. Iowa State University Library, USA

  98. UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE SAN LUIS POTOSI, Mexico

  99. University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, USA

  100. LITA: Library & Information Technology Association

  101. The Library of the University of Latvia

  102. Inonu University, Turkey

  103. CHELSA : Committee for higher education librarians of South Africa

  104. TRLN: Triangle Research Libraries Network, USA

  105. Florida State University Libraries, USA

  106. Dept. of Information Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa

  107. Library and Information Studies Centre, University of Cape Town, South Africa

  108. Coimbra University Press, Portugal

  109. SWALA: Swaziland Library & Information Association, Swaziland

  110. TUBITAK ULAKBIM: Turkish Academic Network and Information Center

  111. UCT Libraries, South Africa

  112. Virginia Tech Libraries, USA

  113. George Washington University Libraries

  114. Metropolitan College of New York Library, USA

  115. Portal de Periódicos Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil

  116. Digital Repository Federation, Japan

  117. Bibliothèque de recherche Mathématiques et Informatique de L’Université de Bordeaux, France