Elsevier wants to ensure a proper balance between the scholarly rights which authors retain (or are granted/transferred back in some cases) and the rights granted to Elsevier that are necessary to support our mix of business models.  We routinely analyze and modify our policies to ensure we are responding to authors’ needs and concerns, and the concerns generally of the research and scholarly communities. 

There are three stages of a journal article development that are relevant from a policy perspective: preprint, accepted author manuscript and published journal article. The definition and policy for each is described below.

Preprints:

Definition: A Pre-print is an author’s own write-up of research results and analysis that has not been peer-reviewed, nor had any other value added to it by a publisher (such as formatting, copy editing, technical enhancement and the like).

Policy: An author may use the Preprint for Personal Use, Internal Institutional Use and for Permitted Scholarly Posting.

Personal Use means: Use by an author in the author’s classroom teaching (including distribution of copies, paper or electronic), distribution of copies to research colleagues for their personal use, use in a subsequent compilation of the author’s works, inclusion in a thesis or dissertation, preparation of other derivative works such as extending the article to book-length form, or otherwise using or re-using portions or excerpts in other works (with full acknowledgment of the original publication of the article).

Internal Institutional Use means: Use by the author’s institution for classroom teaching at the institution (including distribution of copies, paper or electronic, and use in coursepacks and courseware programs). For employed authors, the use by their employing company for internal training purposes.

Permitted Scholarly Posting means: voluntary posting by an author on open Web sites operated by the author or the author’s institution for scholarly purposes, as determined by the author, or (in connection with Preprints) on preprint servers.

In general, Elsevier is permissive with respect to authors and electronic preprints.  If an electronic preprint of an article is placed on a public server prior to its submission to an Elsevier journal, this is not generally viewed by Elsevier as “prior publication” and therefore. Elsevier will not require authors to remove electronic preprints of an article from public servers should the article be accepted for publication in an Elsevier journal. 

However, please note that Cell Press and The Lancet have different preprint policies and will not consider for publication articles that have already been posted publicly.  This is a rule agreed upon by The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.  Information on   Cell Press policy on preprints is available, as is   The Lancet preprint policy.

Accepted Author Manuscripts (AAMs)

Definition: An Accepted Author Manuscript (“AAM”) is the author’s version of the manuscript of an articlethat has been accepted for publication and which may include any author-incorporated changes suggested through the processes of submission processing, peer review, and editor-author communications.  AAMs do not include other publisher value added contributions such as copy-editing, formatting, technical enhancements and (if relevant) pagination.

Policy:Authors retain the right to use the Accepted Author Manuscript for Personal Use, Internal Institutional Use and for Permitted Scholarly Posting provided that these are not for purposes of Commercial Use or Systematic Distribution.

“NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in <Journal title>. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in PUBLICATION, [VOL#, ISSUE#, (DATE)] DOI#”

Elsevier believes that individual authors should be able to distribute their AAMs for their personal voluntary needs and interests, e.g. posting to their websites or their institution’s repository, e-mailing to colleagues. However, our policies differ regarding the systematic aggregation or distribution of AAMs to ensure the sustainability of the journals to which AAMs are submitted. Therefore, deposit in, or posting to, subject-oriented or centralised repositories (such as PubMed Central), or institutional repositories with systematic posting mandates is permitted only under specific agreements between Elsevier and the repository, agency or institution, and only consistent with the Publisher’s policies concerning such repositories. To learn more about Elsevier policies and agreements with such agencies or institutions go to   http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodyagreements. If you are an institution or funding body and would like to discuss putting in place an agreement with Elsevier please contact universalaccess@Elsevier.com .

Personal Use means: Use by an author in the author’s classroom teaching (including distribution of copies, paper or electronic), distribution of copies to research colleagues for their personal use, use in a subsequent compilation of the author’s works, inclusion in a thesis or dissertation, preparation of other derivative works such as extending the article to book-length form, or otherwise using or re-using portions or excerpts in other works (with full acknowledgment of the original publication of the article).

Internal Institutional Use means: Use by the author’s institution for classroom teaching at the institution (including distribution of copies, paper or electronic, and use in coursepacks and courseware programs). For employed authors, the use by their employing company for internal training purposes.

Permitted Scholarly Posting means: voluntary posting by an author on open Web sites operated by the author or the author’s institution for scholarly purposes, as determined by the author, or (in connection with Preprints) on preprint servers.

Commercial Use of AAMs means: the use or posting for commercial gain, whether for a fee or for free, or to substitute for the services provided directly by the journal including:

• The posting by companies of their employee-authored works for use by customers of such companies (e.g. pharmaceutical companies and physician-prescribers); and
• Commercial exploitation such as directly associating advertising with such posting or the charging of fees for document delivery or access.

Systematic Distribution of AAMs means: policies or other mechanisms designed to aggregate and openly disseminate, or to substitute for journal-provided services, including:

• The systematic distribution to others via e-mail lists or listservers (to parties other than known colleagues), whether for a fee or for free;
• The posting of links to articles by commercial third parties including pharmaceutical companies; and
• Institutional, funding body or government manuscript posting policies or mandates that aim to aggregate and openly distribute the work by its researchers or funded researchers; and
• Subject repositories that aim to aggregate and openly distribute AAMs authored by researchers in specific subject areas.

Appropriate Bibliographic Citation:Authors posting Accepted Author Manuscript online should later add a citation for the Published Journal Article indicating that the Article was subsequently published, and may mention the journal title provided that they add the following text at the beginning of the document:

“NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in <Journal title>. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in PUBLICATION, [VOL#, ISSUE#, (DATE)] DOI#”

Published Journal Articles (PJAs)

Definition: A Published Journal Article (PJA) is the definitive final record of published research that appears or will appear in the journal and embodies all value-adding publisher activities including copy-editing, formatting and (if relevant) pagination.

Policy:  Elsevier guarantees each PJA’s authenticity, we work with others (e.g. national libraries) to preserve them for posterity and in perpetuity, and we invest to drive their usage. We strictly apply an absolute guideline regarding their location: every PJA will reside only on a completely controlled site because this is the only way that we as the publisher can guarantee each PJA’s permanence, authenticity and that it is not altered. The continued viability of scholarly journals and their PJAs is also important to the research community. Publishers invest significant time, money and resources to create, maintain and develop both journals’ reputations and the publishing process. The distribution of PJAs is therefore also subject to strict guidelines so that journals’ ability to recoup the investments required to create them are not compromised.

An author may use the PJA for Personal Use and Internal Institutional Use.  In the interest of safeguarding the correct scientific record, however, Elsevier does not permit the posting of PJAs (Elsevier-provided PDF or HTML files) on any open web sites.  This is to ensure that the final published version of an article, which has been edited and peer-reviewed according to the publishing standards of an Elsevier journal, is always recognized as such only via the journal itself, whether in print or electronic format.  PJAs may not be used for Commercial Use or for Systematic Distribution.

Usage definitions:

Personal Use means: Use by an author in the author’s classroom teaching (including distribution of copies, paper or electronic), distribution of copies to research colleagues for their personal use, use in a subsequent compilation of the author’s works, inclusion in a thesis or dissertation, preparation of other derivative works such as extending the article to book-length form, or otherwise using or re-using portions or excerpts in other works (with full acknowledgment of the original publication of the article).

Internal Institutional Use means: Use by the author’s institution for classroom teaching at the institution (including distribution of copies, paper or electronic, and use in coursepacks and courseware programs). For employed authors, the use by their employing company for internal training purposes.

Commercial Use of PJAs means: the use or posting for commercial gain, whether for a fee or for free, or to substitute for the services provided directly by the journal including:

• The posting by companies of their employee-authored works for use by customers of such companies (e.g. pharmaceutical companies and physician-prescribers); and
• Commercial exploitation such as directly associating advertising with such posting or the charging of fees for document delivery or access.

Systematic Distribution of PJAs means: policies or other mechanisms designed to aggregate and openly disseminate, or to substitute for journal-provided services, including:

• Institutional, funding body or government manuscript posting policies or mandates that aim to aggregate and openly distribute the accepted peer reviewed manuscripts or published journal articles authored by its researchers or funded researchers;
• The systematic distribution to others via e-mail lists or listservers (to parties other than known colleagues), whether for a fee or for free;
• The posting of links to articles by commercial third parties including pharmaceutical companies; and
• Subject repositories that aim to aggregate and openly distribute published journal articles authored by researchers in specific subject areas.

The posting of the PJA to websites to fulfil drug regulation authority approval of therapeutic agents is not permitted in accordance to the policy outlined above. Where applicable, Elsevier permits the inclusion of an article title and abstract to fulfil drug regulation authority requirements, provided this is accompanied by a link to the PJA on the publisher’s website.