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