[GOAL] Elsevier selling access to open access articles... again

Sat Feb 18 11:03:04 GMT 2017

This is a critically important matter and one where in the past Elsevier
has failed to honour their legal obligations.

I am using this list to reply publicly to Elsevier's Director of Access and
Policy (Alicia Wise) and I expect a reply from her on this list.

In 2014 I wrote to the UK science minister about Elsevier's failure to
provide proper support for "open Access" where APCs had been paid to make
the paper universally and permanently visible.

The minister (The RT Hon David Willetts, MP - Business Industry and Skills)
wrote to Julian Huppert (my MP) on 2014-06-06. Some excerpts"
"Elsevier have addressed his [PMR's] concerns in a blog
https://www.elsevier.com/connect/open-access-the-systems-journey. ... The
problems with misselling arose due to changes to systems and infrastructure
to be compliant with Governments' Open Access Policy" ... "This problem
should not have arisen and now that it has they are taking all possible
steps to correct it.". "Elsevier have committed to solving the underlying
systems issues by *Summer 2014*' [PMR emphasis].

The blog post includes:
<elsevier>

So when will this all be reliable?

As anyone who has ever administered a database knows, reconstructing one
with incomplete metadata  is a time-consuming and largely manual process.
Currently, there are still some inconsistencies in license statements and
copyright lines for content due to the article's metadata even though the
articles in question are freely accessible. We are updating the copyright
statements on existing PDFs and in HTML and XML versions of articles too
and ensuring all of our OA content includes an explicit link to the
relevant license stating re-use terms. We are working through these tasks
as quickly as we can with the expectation to have it completed by the
summer of 2014.

We have already solved many classes of problems, but there will continue to
be some bumps on this journey toward open access. We take operational
excellence very seriously here, and so we are working very hard to rectify
all problems.

</elsevier>

This includes the well known "bumps on the road" phrase.

It is now 2.5 years since Elsevier assured the UK government that they had
solved all the problems. Depending on Elsevier's reply to the question
below I intend to write to the UK government again to enquire whether
Elsevier has complied with their commitment in 2014.

QUESTION: Please will the Director of Open Access and Policy assure us that
there are currently NO papers (0.0%) for which APCs have been paid, behind
Elsevier paywalls [1].

I will convey her response to the minister. Note that "almost none" is not
good enough - a failure rate of 0.1% would generate a misselling income for
Elsevier of >> 100 000 USD.

[1] this includes all companiesand publishers such as Lancet, Cell, etc.

On Sat, Feb 18, 2017 at 12:03 AM, Wise, Alicia (ELS-OXF) <
A.Wise at elsevier.com> wrote:

> Hi Ross, this has taken a little time to bottom out but indeed the article
> should be OA. In 2013 you may recall we initiated an exercise to
> add/correct and generally clean up OA license information on articles.
> This article was part of that exercise, and a little unusual: we had
> invoiced the author, and then the institution wanted to receive the invoice
> but in a different currency, so the original  article invoice was unpaid
> during the cleaning exercise.
>
>
>
> Our normal practice is to publish articles OA, but to move them back
> behind the firewall if after a grace period the invoice remains unpaid.  So
> it was picked up as an article with an unpaid APC and moved behind the
> firewall.  We’ve gone through the system, this is the only article
> affected. There’s nothing malicious about what happened here, and we’ll be
> reimbursing the institution’s APC, and your PPV charge.  We will also run a
> check to see if anyone else paid PPV for this article and if so reimburse
> them as well.
>
>
>
> With best 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 <+44%207823%20536826> I E: a.wise at elsevier.com
>
> *Twitter: @wisealic*
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Wise, Alicia (ELS-OXF)
> *Sent:* 15 February 2017 18:22
> *To:* Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) <goal at eprints.org>
> *Cc:* Wise, Alicia (ELS-OXF) <A.Wise at elsevier.com>
> *Subject:* RE: [GOAL] Elsevier selling access to open access articles...
> again
>
>
>
> Ross – we are looking into this, but an initial glance at the article
> suggests that the author first decided to publish gold OA and then decided
> against it.  We’ll have a little look to make sure all the metadata is
> correct.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> 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 <+44%207823%20536826> I E: a.wise at elsevier.com
>
> *Twitter: @wisealic*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* goal-bounces at eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org
> <goal-bounces at eprints.org>] *On Behalf Of *Ross Mounce
> *Sent:* 15 February 2017 08:06
> *To:* Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) <goal at eprints.org>
> *Subject:* [GOAL] Elsevier selling access to open access articles... again
>
>
>
> Elsevier have a documented track record of selling access to articles that
> should be open access.
>
>
>
> It is with sadness that I report here that they appear to be doing this
> again in 2017:
>
> http://rossmounce.co.uk/2017/02/14/elsevier-selling-access-
> to-open-access-again/
>
>
>
>
>
> As a reminder, they were caught doing this in:
>
>
>
> 2014:
>
> https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elsevier-bumps-on-road-to-
> open-access/2012238.article
>
>
>
> and
>
>
>
> 2015:
>
> http://rossmounce.co.uk/2015/03/06/elsevier-illegally-sold-
> me-a-creative-commons-non-commercial-licensed-article/
>
>
>
> and
>
>
>
> 2016:
>
> https://twitter.com/RaoOfPhysics/status/740811591084576768
>
>
>
>
>
> Can someone please remind me why we allow researchers to publish hybrid
> open access at Elsevier? For such a large company, and the large sums of
> money paid in the form of hybrid APCs it is simply astonishing that
> Elsevier can't seem to get this right.
>
>
>
> If you know of any other sources of information about articles that have
> been paid-for to be open access at Elsevier journals (aside from Wellcome
> Trust data), please let me know. I and others will do our best to check
> that these articles are actually open access, not for sale behind an
> expensive paywall.
>
>
>
> Happy Valentine's Day,
>
>
>
> Ross
>
>
>
> --
>
> --
> -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
> -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
> Ross Mounce, PhD
>
> Software Sustainability Institute Fellow 2016
> Dept. of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge
> www.rossmounce.co.uk <http://rossmounce.co.uk/>
> -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
> -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
>
> ------------------------------
>
> 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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>
>

-- 
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader Emeritus in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dept. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
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