A comment on takedown notices | Elsevier Connect

"At Elsevier, we issue takedown notices from time to time when the final version of published journal articles is posted on unauthorized public websites. This afternoon, I communicated with The Chronicle of Higher Education to explain the reason we do this and point out the various options authors do have to share their published work with colleagues and the public. Their article is here.   Here's the explanation I had sent to The Chronicle: 'We do issue takedown notices from time to time when the final version of the published journal articles has been, often inadvertently, posted. However, there are many other good options for authors who want to share their article. They can share the final published version of the article with colleagues, use it for internal teaching and training, and at conferences or meetings. Any author who publishes in an Elsevier journal can also post and share other versions of their article, following some simple guidelines that vary by the version of the article to be shared.  And of course the final published journal article can be shared whenever an author published open access with us. Why do we send take down notices? 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.  The formal publications on our platforms also give researchers better tools and links, for example to data.   Any authors affected by a takedown notice who would like to self-archive and need help in doing so can contact us at universalaccess@elsevier.com.  Academia.edu (the company referred to in the Chronicle) made final versions of articles publicly available. We've reached out to them to ensure they were aware of our policies and to explore user-friendly options for alignment, but unfortunately they were unwilling to engage with us. Here is more information about ways that our authors can: Use their final published journal articles: http://www.elsevier.com/about/open-access/open-access-options  Publish or post open access with Elsevier: http://www.elsevier.com/about/open-access'"