Biomedical Journals and Open Access Institutional Repositories: An Ongoing Review : American Journal of Roentgenology: Vol. 205, No. 4 (AJR)

"We will continue to work with authors and institutions to maintain the scientific integrity of AJR and protect our authors from potential duplication and copyright issues. Susan B. Cappitelli, Executive Director of the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS), and the ARRS Publications Committee have developed several key communication points for our authors and institutions with repositories. These key concepts are important as we work through the issues in the short and long term:

AJR supports the goals of open access; its policy regarding open access has not changed.

The major issue is copyright and the author's ability to transfer it to AJR.

Transfer of copyright allows AJR to appropriate resources to provide rigorous peer review, copy editing services, and quality assurance at no cost to the author, unlike journals that charge for peer review or for publication.

Institutional repository mandates may limit the author's ability to transfer the copyright, and requiring deposit of peer-reviewed, published articles may infringe on copyright.

Ultimately, these limits on copyright assignment and potential copyright infringement will result in the loss or diminution of independent peer review and vetting of research will harm rather than advance science.

The required step of providing an optout or waiver letter is necessitated by the institution's policies. We believe that such steps will become more common as other journals become aware of copyright implications of these institutional repository mandates. AJR continues to study the issue and commits to minimizing, whenever possible, the burden imposed on authors by these institutional practices...."