From: Kevin Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 00:48:24 +0000

There are a couple of things that confuse me in Dr. Wise's answers to
these questions.  I wonder if she could explain what it means to say
that Elsevier uses a shorter embargo list in the UK.  Does this mean
that for some journals an embargo is imposed on US authors but not on
British ones?  Or does in mean that some individual embargoes may be
shorter in the UK?  Is the difference, whatever it is, because of
funder requirements?

Relatedly, is the policy she describes such that if a funder requires
public access in six months, Elsevier will refuse to allow the authors
to comply unless they pay the additional fee for Elsevier's gold OA
option?  Green OA would not be permitted even if required by the
funder?

Thanks for explaining.

Kevin L. Smith, M.L.S., J.D.
Director, Copyright and Scholarly Communications
Duke University Libraries



> On Jun 21, 2015, at 8:08 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: David Prosser <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2015 06:13:03 +0000
>
> I feel contractually obliged (and I know I’m boring everybody) to
> point out that the evidence that links journal usage patterns to
> library purchasing patterns is pretty much non-existent.  Setting
> embargoes based on usage patterns is faith-based, not evidence-based.
>
> David
>
>> On 19 Jun 2015, at 00:46, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> From: "Wise, Alicia (ELS-OXF)" <[log in to unmask]>
>> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2015 17:54:19 +0000
>>
>> Hi Ann,
>>
>> Thank you, and Rick, for drawing attention to the What's Changed slide
>> (http://www.slideshare.net/aliciawise/whats-changed-in-sharing-policy).
>> It's been viewed 581 times, c. 125 of these when I first distributed
>> the link and a further 200 times in the last couple of days.
>>
>> You ask several questions about embargos: their length, how they are
>> set, and whether we would like to rationalize or normalize the embargo
>> periods.
>>
>> First, the length of our embargo periods, and particularly how many
>> journals have 48 month embargo periods.  The answer is that only 25,
>> or 1.1%, of our journals have 48 month embargo periods.  54.7% of our
>> journals have embargo periods of 12 months.  We are using a shorter
>> embargo list in the UK, and in that case 83.7% of our journals have
>> embargo periods of 12 months.  Longer embargo periods are typically
>> used for social science and some physical science titles where there
>> is a longer usage half-life.
>>
>> (For us, and for other publishers, see:
>> http://publishers.org/sites/default/files/uploads/PSP/journalusagehalflife.pdf).
>>
>> We are reviewing our embargo periods in 2015, and while I cannot
>> pre-judge the outcome of this review, we are very conscious of the
>> many new funding body policies that have emerged in the last year with
>> 12 month embargo periods.  We obviously want embargo periods that
>> support authors, funders and journals.
>>
>> Second, you ask about how we set embargo periods.  These are largely
>> based on underlying usage patterns, but following review of usage data
>> we do sense-check the suggested embargo period with publishers and
>> consult with Society publishing partners.  This sense-check factors
>> in: feedback from researchers, analysis of researcher sharing
>> behaviors, what our competitors are doing, and funder policies and
>> mandates that might influence author submission decisions.  As I
>> explained above, we want embargo periods that support authors, funders
>> and journals, but there will be occasions where the requirements of
>> funders for short embargo periods, for example of six months, won’t
>> align with our need to protect journals.  If a funder insists on 6
>> month embargo periods and we can’t see a way for that to be
>> sustainable for a journal, then we have gold OA options available.
>> Most funders with such policies provide funding for gold OA
>> publishing.
>>
>> Third, you ask if we would like to rationalize or normalize the
>> embargo periods.  We do understand the administration and
>> communication benefits for us all of increased simplicity, and we do
>> see more coherence in embargo periods over time.  However it is likely
>> there will always be some exceptions and that it will not be possible
>> to get 100% alignment for all our journals on one specific embargo
>> period.
>>
>> With kind wishes,
>> Alicia