[GOAL] Re: Elsevier is taking down papers from Academia.edu

[Heather Morrison]

Thank you for the clarification, Alicia and Graham. 

However, on the Elsevier "copyright when publishing open access" page, it states that under the Exclusive License Agreement used with open access journals, "Elsevier is granted"..."An exclusive right to publish and distribute an article".
From: http://www.elsevier.com/about/open-access/open-access-policies/author-agreement

Also the graph on this page shows a one-way distribution from publisher to user. Whoever created this graph obviously does not understand open access. There is no author to publisher (for final version) to repository to whoever option illustrated, for example, and no publisher to user to downstream user who receives article from someone other than the publisher. 

Open access means that anyone can distribute the article. Even with CC restricted licenses, the restrictions are specific to certain types of uses (e.g. can distribute but not for commercial gain - NC; can distribute but not change - ND; can distribute and create derivatives but derivatives must have the same license - SA). An article that cannot be distributed by others is not open access. 

It would be helpful to review the actual author's agreement. I don't see a link from the Elsevier site - can you point me to a link?

best,

Heather Morrison

On 2013-12-10, at 5:26 AM, Wise, Alicia (ELS-OXF) wrote:

> Thank you, Graham – all correct, and more clear and concise than I would have been!
>  
> With kind wishes,
> Alicia
>  
> Dr Alicia Wise
> Director of Access and Policy
> Elsevier I The Boulevard I Langford Lane I Kidlington I Oxford I OX5 1GB
> M: +44 (0) 7823 536 826 I E: a.wise at elsevier.com
> Twitter: @wisealic
>  
> From: goal-bounces at eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org] On Behalf Of Graham Triggs
> Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:31 AM
> To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
> Subject: [GOAL] Re: Elsevier is taking down papers from Academia.edu
>  
> On 9 December 2013 00:20, Heather Morrison <Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca> wrote:
> Alicia,
> 
> According to your statement below, with CC-BY the only restriction placed by Elsevier is for attribution. However, the Elsevier open access license policy clearly states that Elsevier demands an exclusive license to publish with open access works (including CC-BY). Can you explain this discrepancy?
>  
> I don't believe this is a discrepancy. What it is saying that the definitive record is published by Elsevier, and the author provides an exclusive licence in order to do so.
>  
> Re-publishing, or re-distributing via any other venue constitutes a derivative work, which is permissible and does not conflict with the exclusive licence (which is only on the definitive record, not the derivative) - providing the proper attribution is in place.
>  
> Without the exclusive licence to the definitive record, then as the author retains copyright, then in theory the author could authorize publishing of a version of the definitive record without attribution to the Elsevier version.
>  
> It's a question of preserving the version of record. The difference between the author providing a licence to Elsevier to distribute an article under CC-BY, and the author providing a CC-BY licence to Elsevier.
>  
> Comment: Based on this wording it is clear that Elsevier is requiring an exclusive publishing license. This is not compatible with your explanation below that nothing is required beyond attribution as required by the CC-BY license.
>  
> It is consistent - the article can be re-published elsewhere, providing it is accordance with the CC-BY licence, including attribution to the definitive record as published by Elsevier.
>  
> G
> 
> Elsevier Limited. Registered Office: The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1GB, United Kingdom, Registration No. 1982084, Registered in England and Wales. 
> 
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-- 
Dr. Heather Morrison
Assistant Professor
École des sciences de l'information / School of Information Studies
University of Ottawa

http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/faculty/hmorrison.html
Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca