Elsevier, takedown notices, and universities
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Publishing company increases takedown notices against academic institutions
and websites
Posted Dec 20, 2013 4:01 PM CST
By Victor Li
Elsevier—the science and medical segment of publisher Reed Elsevier—has
dramatically increased its copyright enforcement efforts against
universities and academic websites, demanding that they remove thousands of
scholarly works from their websites.
Over the last several weeks, Elsevier has sent takedown notices to Harvard
University, the University of Calgary, the University of California-Irvine
and media network
Academia.edu, according to the Washington Post. The Post
reports that Elsevier’s ownership of the copyrights in question is not in
dispute—scholars usually sign away their copyrights as a condition for Reed
Elsevier to publish their work. However, it has been industry practice for
journal publishers to overlook instances where academic institutions post
work from their own scholars.
Those days seem to be over. “In the past, we really got one or two
takedowns a week,” said
Academia.edu chief executive officer Richard Price
to the Washington Post. “Only very recently did Elsevier start sending
takedowns in batches of thousands.” Price told the Post his website has
received more than 2,800 takedown notices in recent weeks.
According to the Post, the uptick in takedown notices comes at a time when
academics and publishing companies are re-evaluating the existing model for
publishing scholarly works. Given the growth of online outlets, authors are
no longer exclusively reliant on publishing companies to distribute their
work. Publishers, however, argue that they are more needed than ever, given
their supervision of the extensive peer-review system.
Reed Elsevier, for its part, pointed to the need to preserve the sanctity
of the publication and review process as its main reason for issuing the
takedown notices. “We do issue takedown notices from time to time when the
final version of the published journal articles has been, often
inadvertently, posted,” said Reed Elsevier VP and Head of Global Corporate
Relations Tom Reller, in a post. “One key reason is 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.”
That doesn’t seem to be Elsevier’s only concern. According to the Post, the
company acknowledged that there was also a “business-focused reason for
takedown notices.” Additionally, the article noted that, in April, the
company purchased
Mendeley.com, one of Academia.edu’s competitors in the
research paper management and distribution field.
--
June Samaras
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