[BOAI] Response from Elsevier to an item in May 2011 issue of SOAN

[Peter Suber]

I included the following item in the Roundup section of the May 2011 issue
of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter:
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/05-02-11.htm#roundup

* David Solomon found that Elsevier's Operative Techniques in Otolaryngology
> - Head and Neck Surgery charges for access to its masthead and instructions
> for authors.  From Solomon:  "Elsevier, Inc is charging 31.50 (USD) each for
> access not only to the articles, but the masthead, the listing of the
> editorial board, table of contents, and even the instructions for authors.
>  Thinking this had to be an oversight, I sent the following query to their
> support page....'I would appreciate knowing if this is an error or you
> really intend to charge potential authors $31.50 to get a copy of the
> instructions for authors.'  This is what they wrote back: '...Thank you for
> contacting Elsevier's e-Helpdesk Support. I apologize for any inconvenience
> this may have caused. ScienceDirect is an online database for institutions,
> we do not have a way to give complimentary access to users....' "
> https://arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/5798.html
> http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10431810


Today I received a response from Alicia Wise, Elsevier's Director of
Universal Access, and have her permission to forward it.  I'll also publish
an excerpt in the next issue of SOAN.


Dear Peter,



I read the May edition of SOAN, and was surprised to learn about David
Solomon’s experience.



Elsevier does not in fact charge for access to things like our instructions
for authors, editorial board listings, table of contents, and masthead.
Unfortunately our customer service department did not interpret his query
correctly and so did not communicate effectively on this occasion. In this
case the article has been incorrectly marked-up so our systems could not
correctly distinguish different elements of the content.  To compound the
situation we have discovered that our pay-per-view system does not always
correctly distinguish different sections of a text, even when they are
properly marked-up.  We are now in the process of correcting the mark-up,
scanning for other articles that may be similarly miscoded, tweaking the
pay-per-view system, and using this as an example in our customer service
training.



Thank you very much for drawing this to our attention, and for any help you
can provide to disseminate our response.



With kind wishes,

Alicia





Dr Alicia Wise

Director of Universal Access

Elsevier I The Boulevard I Langford Lane I Kidlington I Oxford I OX5 1GB

T: +44 (0)1865 843317 I F: +44 (0)1865 853333  I M: +44 (0) 7823 536 826 I
E: a.wise at elsevier.com



Elsevier Limited. Registered Office: The Boulevard, Langford Lane,
Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1GB, United Kingdom, Registration No. 1982084
(England and Wales).
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