Bepress and Elsevier – an update

"So what does it mean to be part of Elsevier and a key component of its larger open access initiatives? Clearly this domain is much broader than just bepress, and we cannot single-handedly effect change, but we have already seen that we have a critical role to play in sharing our community’s successful approach to open access. We are already working with Elsevier colleagues, having frank conversations about the way Elsevier’s open access messages come across and what our users need to hear instead. We’ve found our new colleagues to be smart, passionate and eager to collaborate. We see that we have an opportunity to influence the market leader. It is exciting.

I believe that bepress can help Elsevier do a better job of communicating about open access clearly and without caveats. The bepress team is also advocating for what we believe the broader community needs to see through action over time: platform-agnostic integration, increased portability of content, and easier ways to grow open access collections, for example. Yes, Elsevier is a big ship and therefore slower to turn, but its open access direction is clear and we are part of it. I am looking forward to charting the course together."