ARL Urges Elsevier to Revise Policy That Impedes Sharing of Scholarship | Association of Research Libraries® | ARL®

"In April 2015, Elsevier announced a new sharing and hosting policy for Elsevier journal articles, which imposes excessive restrictions on authors and institutions, employs embargo periods that are counter to the requirements established by the Canadian and US governments, and, more fundamentally, impedes the sharing of information by scholars that is so fundamental to the research process. Shortly after Elsevier announced its new policy, criticism of the policy began to pour in from around the world from members of the research community, research and academic libraries, consortia, and more. The widely shared concerns with the new policy ultimately led to a statement in May requesting that Elsevier rethink this policy. ARL and a significant number of ARL member libraries signed on to that statement. Because Elsevier has not changed the new policy nor indicated an interest in doing so, ARL president Deborah Jakubs sent a letter to Elsevier chairman Youngsuk Chi late last week on behalf of the ARL Board and ARL member libraries, which represent the interests of more than 200,000 faculty and 3.6 million students at universities in the US and Canada ..."