Open Access in 2013 | Elsevier

Throughout 2013, there will be many discussions between researchers on exactly how open access will be implemented in their community. This will be particularly important in the UK and Europe. Back in July, the UK government endorsed the Finch Report recommendations for government-funded research to be made available in open access publications. The European Commission has since followed suit, making a similar announcement for an open access policy starting in 2014. Both of these developments have far-reaching consequences in all disciplines, bringing open access very much to the foreground of researchers’ minds this year. What is Elsevier’s Position? At Elsevier, we have welcomed the recommendations from the Finch Report and have always supported models that help researchers communicate and access information in a sustainable way. This is why we have been busy scaling our programs and activities to offer authors a greater choice of open  access options. How can you publish Open Access? Firstly, you can choose to publish in over 30 of our Open Access journals which are hosted on our ScienceDirect platform and include the recently launched Cell Reports and Journal of Cancer Policy. A full directory of our open access journals is available online Alternatively you can also continue to publish in 1500 of our journals which have an Open Article option. This allows any author to choose to publish open access after acceptance. This option allows authors to continue to publish in respected high quality journals while also complying with new open access policies and mandates. Further details on this option are available from our website. All articles published in this way will be made permanently free for everyone to access and use immediately upon publication. Our publications continue to have full peer review, ensuring that the broader community not only reads the latest research but trust that it is factual, original and of the highest quality and ethical standards. When publishing Open Access, a fee is payable by the author or research funder to cover the costs associated with publication. Elsevier publishes journals encompassing the full breadth of scientific research and the full range of research outcomes. Our publication fees reflect this diversity and range from $500USD to $5000USD. Elsevier has established agreements with major funding bodies worldwide to help assist authors comply with new Open Access policies. In some occasions, the funding bodies will reimburse authors for open  access publication fees. We have published a list of funding body agreements on Elsevier.com ... What about the Green Route?  There has also been a lot of discussion about Green Open Access. Essentially, this is just referring to self-archiving and it means posting your manuscript on your personal or institutional website.  Unlike the gold open access model, there are no fees for the  author to pay under the green model of open access. Instead the  publication costs are paid for by subscriptions, which enable readers to access the final published version of the journal article.  Elsevier has a journal specific posting policy which allows authors to voluntarily post their accepted author manuscript or preprint to your personal websites or institutional repositories.  However, if your funder or employer requires you to post your articles or has a policy or mandate in place, Elsevier needs an agreement in advance. This is to make sure that the organization's manuscript posting policies do not undermine the sustainability of the journal. Typically, such an agreement entails a period of time before your manuscript is  made publicly available as well as a requirement to link from the manuscript to  the final version of your published journal article.  Elsevier is working in partnership to test and learn more about  how best to support sustainable green open access. For example Elsevier deposits accepted author manuscripts to PubMed Central for authors reporting research funded by the NIH. As a result, Elsevier has deposited more than 80,000 author manuscripts since 2005 ..."