Elsevier Agreement with British Heart Foundation
Since January 1, 2007, a copy of the final manuscript of all peer-reviewed research papers supported in whole or in part by a British Heart Foundation (BHF) grant must be deposited in an open access archive such as PubMed Central (PMC) or UK PubMed Central (UKPMC), to be made freely available within six months of publication.
Elsevier has made an agreement with the British Heart Foundation that will allow authors who publish in Elsevier journals to comply with these requirements. This agreement is intended to support the needs of Elsevier authors, editors, and society publishing partners, and to protect the quality and integrity of the peer-review process.
BHF-funded authors publishing in Elsevier journals can comply with the BHF policy by paying a fee to the journal to help offset the cost of peer review and other publishing costs. BHF will reimburse authors who have paid the fee. The fee has initially been set at $3,000 per article for all Elsevier journals except those published by Cell Press, which have a $5,000 per article fee, and The Lancet, which will have a fee of £400 per page. The difference in fees for The Lancet and Cell Press reflects higher associated costs.
Upon final publication, Elsevier will send to PMC the final document used to generate the published journal article that appears on ScienceDirect. This document reflects all author-agreed changes that arise from the peer-review, copy-editing and proofing processes. Elsevier will authorize its public posting on PMC, and PMC mirror sites immediately. PMC and PMC mirror sites will also link directly to the final published journal article, which will continue to reside only on Elsevier’s websites and which Elsevier will make freely available to both non-subscribers and subscribers. Subject to certain conditions, documents published under this sponsorship model may be redistributed and reused.
There is no change to Elsevier’s author posting policy that allows authors to post revised personal versions of manuscripts (those that reflect changes made in the peer review) on their own websites and the sites of their institutions, provided a link to the journal is included. Posting directly to PMC or other sites outside an author’s institution continues to be prohibited, as does any further republishing or redistribution of Elsevier copyright-protected content and society copyright-protected content published by Elsevier. This new agreement enables BHF-funded authors to comply with the BHF policy without having to violate their publishing agreements with Elsevier.
This agreement with the British Heart Foundation is consistent with Elsevier’s long-standing record of adapting to meet authors’ changing needs, preserving the quality and integrity of the peer-review process, and providing value throughout the publishing cycle. It is another example of Elsevier’s ongoing engagement with scientific and academic communities to explore ways to deliver demonstrable and sustainable benefits for the research communities we serve.
