Language of Protest

All six editors and all 31 editorial board members of Lingua, one of the top journals in linguistics, last week resigned to protest Elsevier's policies on pricing and its refusal to convert the journal to an open-access publication that would be free online.
This might be the beginning of an interesting trend …
  • Here is a piece on the issue from Wired
  • And here is a piece in German from Uli Herb

More on Elsevier and Academia.edu

Here is a bit more juice on the Elsevier Academia.edu entanglement.
Tom Reller, Elsevier’s vice president for global corporate relations, said via email that the publisher “does issue takedown notices from time to time when the final version of the published journal articles has been, often inadvertently, posted. However, there are many other good options for authors who want to share their article. We aim to ensure that the final published version of an article is readily discoverable and citable via the journal itself in order to maximize the usage metrics and credit for our authors, and to protect the quality and integrity of the scientific record. The formal publications on our platforms also give researchers better tools and links, for example to data.”
All in all there are four observations that can be drawn from this:
  1. It had to happen sometime: publishers don't let you sign copyright agreements for nothing. Platforms like Academia.edu or ResearchGate pose a real threats to their "business models". And once it is accepted policy that every researcher posts her materials on such a platform no one would see a reason to buy a paper anymore. That would be great in a sense of access, but then again access really isn't the publishers' main concern.
  2. They sell you open access: If all articles would be available online people would stop to pay publishers for there ridiculously overpriced open access options.
  3. This will very likely continue: As said before there are a few platforms out there making research articles available to the community. My personal guess is that we will hear from ResearchGate next.
  4. You live freely if you haven't a reputation to lose: Elsevier really has nothing to lose. They already established themselves as the researchers' ultimate antagonist. Meanwhile, in many fields they still own leading journals that researchers simply won't stop publishing in. So in this position what would they gain from playing nice?
SF    

Elsevier distances itself from open-access article

Mendeley were bought outright this week by Reed Elsevier, the Dutch publishing house who publish more than 2000 scientific journals, including the Lancet. Victor Henning is joined by Jason Priem of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, author of a recent horizon scanning feature in Nature, to discuss the future of science publication and how this wealth of research will be managed in the future.
BBC Radio.

Elsevier In Advanced Talks To Buy Mendeley For Around $100M To Beef Up In Social, Open Source Education Content

The costs of Open Access

The costs of Open Access

Elsevier-Boykott: Akademischer Frühling in Deutschland eher verregnet

Elsevier-Boykott: Akademischer Frühling in Deutschland eher verregnet

Handelsblatt

Handelsblatt

Open Access is not just a matter for scientists

Open Access is not just a matter for scientists

A Look Inside the Boycott of Elsevier: A Q&A with Tim Gowers and Tyler Neylon

A Look Inside the Boycott of Elsevier: A Q&A with Tim Gowers and Tyler Neylon