Elsevier Gives Authors Green Light for Open Access Self-Archiving

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

Do-it-yourself editing???

Elsevier's Karen Hunter wrote:

> By "his version" we are referring to Word or Tex file, not a PDF or HTML 
> downloaded from ScienceDirect - but the author can update the version to 
> reflect changes made during the refereeing and editing process.
This is do-it-yourself editing, right?  The author is free to post the
final, refereed version, but must take the responsibility for editing and
proofreading from the author's own preprint?

Researchers deserve better!  When a researcher essential gives away the
ability to reap monetary reward from publishing an article, the least the
publisher can do is provide the author with the fruits of their own
labour, in the form of the final electronic version(s).

If this is full "green", then I think we need new shades.  This is a pale,
half-hearted green, which might be seen as a token form of supporting open
access which is actually meant to discourage it in practice.  A true full
green should be reserved for publishers willing to provide the final copy
in electronic format.

This is a step in the right direction though, and congratulations to
Elsevier.

One positive in this do-it-yourself editing approach from the commercial
publishing side is that it gives an added edge to the open access
publishers, who are willing to provide the self-archiving researcher with
a superior product.

cheers,

Heather Morrison