<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>This is a critically important matter and one where in the past Elsevier has failed to honour their legal obligations.<br><br>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. <br><br>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.<br><br></div>The minister (The RT Hon David Willetts, MP - Business Industry and Skills) wrote to Julian Huppert (my MP) on 2014-06-06. Some excerpts"<br></div>"Elsevier have addressed his [PMR's] concerns in a blog <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/connect/open-access-the-systems-journey">https://www.elsevier.com/connect/open-access-the-systems-journey</a>. ... 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 <b>Summer 2014</b>' [PMR emphasis].<br><br></div><div>The blog post includes:<br></div><div><elsevier><br></div><br><h2>So when will this all be reliable?</h2><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p></elsevier><br></p><p>This includes the well known "bumps on the road" phrase.<br></p><p>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.<br><br></p><p>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].</p><p> 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. <br></p><p>[1] this includes all companiesand publishers such as Lancet, Cell, etc.<br></p><p><br></p></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Feb 18, 2017 at 12:03 AM, Wise, Alicia (ELS-OXF) <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:A.Wise@elsevier.com" target="_blank">A.Wise@elsevier.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div link="blue" vlink="purple" lang="EN-US">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">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. <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">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. <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">With best wishes,<u></u><u></u></span></p><span class="">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Alicia<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#7f7f7f">Dr Alicia Wise<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#7f7f7f">Director of Access and Policy<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#ff9900">Elsevier
</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:gray">I The Boulevard I Langford Lane I Kidlington I Oxford I OX5 1GB</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:gray"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:gray">M: <a href="tel:+44%207823%20536826" value="+447823536826" target="_blank">+44 (0) 7823 536 826</a> I E:
<a href="mailto:a.wise@elsevier.com" target="_blank">a.wise@elsevier.com</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:gray">Twitter: @wisealic<u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
</span><div>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #e1e1e1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Wise, Alicia (ELS-OXF)
<br>
<b>Sent:</b> 15 February 2017 18:22<span class=""><br>
<b>To:</b> Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) <<a href="mailto:goal@eprints.org" target="_blank">goal@eprints.org</a>><br>
</span><b>Cc:</b> Wise, Alicia (ELS-OXF) <<a href="mailto:A.Wise@elsevier.com" target="_blank">A.Wise@elsevier.com</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> RE: [GOAL] Elsevier selling access to open access articles... again<u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div>
</div><span class="">
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d">Thanks,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d">Alicia<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#7f7f7f">Dr Alicia Wise<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#7f7f7f">Director of Access and Policy<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#ff9900">Elsevier
</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:gray">I The Boulevard I Langford Lane I Kidlington I Oxford I OX5 1GB</span><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:gray"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:gray">M: <a href="tel:+44%207823%20536826" value="+447823536826" target="_blank">+44 (0) 7823 536 826</a> I E:
<a href="mailto:a.wise@elsevier.com" target="_blank">a.wise@elsevier.com</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:gray">Twitter: @wisealic<u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">
<a href="mailto:goal-bounces@eprints.org" target="_blank">goal-bounces@eprints.org</a> [<a href="mailto:goal-bounces@eprints.org" target="_blank">mailto:goal-bounces@eprints.<wbr>org</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Ross Mounce<br>
<b>Sent:</b> 15 February 2017 08:06<br>
<b>To:</b> Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci) <<a href="mailto:goal@eprints.org" target="_blank">goal@eprints.org</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [GOAL] Elsevier selling access to open access articles... again<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
</span><div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">Elsevier have a documented track record of selling access to articles that should be open access.</span><u></u><u></u></p><div><div class="h5">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">It is with sadness that I report here that they appear to be doing this again in 2017:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><a href="http://rossmounce.co.uk/2017/02/14/elsevier-selling-access-to-open-access-again/" target="_blank">http://rossmounce.co.uk/2017/<wbr>02/14/elsevier-selling-access-<wbr>to-open-access-again/</a> <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">As a reminder, they were caught doing this in:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">2014: <u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elsevier-bumps-on-road-to-open-access/2012238.article" target="_blank">https://www.<wbr>timeshighereducation.com/news/<wbr>elsevier-bumps-on-road-to-<wbr>open-access/2012238.article</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">and<u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">2015: <u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><a href="http://rossmounce.co.uk/2015/03/06/elsevier-illegally-sold-me-a-creative-commons-non-commercial-licensed-article/" target="_blank">http://rossmounce.co.uk/2015/<wbr>03/06/elsevier-illegally-sold-<wbr>me-a-creative-commons-non-<wbr>commercial-licensed-article/</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">and<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">2016: <u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><a href="https://twitter.com/RaoOfPhysics/status/740811591084576768" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/<wbr>RaoOfPhysics/status/<wbr>740811591084576768</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">Happy Valentine's Day,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">Ross<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">-- <u></u><u></u></p>
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-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/<wbr>-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-<span style="font-size:9.5pt">/-/-/-/-/-/<wbr>-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-</span><br>
Ross Mounce, PhD<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt">Software Sustainability <wbr>Institute Fellow 2016</span><br>
Dept. of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge<br>
<a href="http://rossmounce.co.uk/" target="_blank">www.rossmounce.co.uk</a><br>
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/<wbr>-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-<span style="font-size:9.5pt">/-/-/-/-/-/<wbr>-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-</span><u></u><u></u></p>
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<hr>
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Elsevier Limited. Registered Office: The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1GB, United Kingdom, Registration No. 1982084, Registered in England and Wales.</span>
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<br>______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
GOAL mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:GOAL@eprints.org">GOAL@eprints.org</a><br>
<a href="http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.<wbr>uk/mailman/listinfo/goal</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Peter Murray-Rust<br>Reader Emeritus in Molecular Informatics<br>Unilever Centre, Dept. Of Chemistry<br>University of Cambridge<br>CB2 1EW, UK<br>+44-1223-763069</div></div></div>
</div>