For over 300 years, the subscription model has been the most effective way to circulate scientific and medical research. It’s also a tried and tested way of sustaining the crucial peer review system, which ensures the quality and integrity of science. But new approaches may close remaining access gaps. We talk to Dr. James Phimister, Senior Manager, Strategy, about three initiatives Elsevier is testing.

“I take the communication of science and health research very seriously,” he says. “I strongly believe in testing and exploring new access models to meet the needs of the research communities we serve.” Phimister joined the Elsevier strategy group about three years ago. Prior to joining, he was a consultant at McKinsey, and the J. Herbert Hollomon Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. Since joining Elsevier, he’s focused on testing new business and access models.

Addressing Access Gaps
“We’ve been examining where there are gaps in access and how to best close them,” says Phimister. “In the developing world, Elsevier helped found   HINARI,   AGORA and   OARE, providing free or very low cost institutional subscriptions to developing countries. To help patients access and interpret the latest medical research, we helped found Patient Inform.”

Phimister continues, “Some initiatives that our authors and editors are less aware of include our author archiving policy, options for author sponsorship to provide non-subscriber access for articles, and journals that provide free access to their recent archive. As we test new approaches, we explore whether the approach is sustainable, if it ensures continuity of the scientific record, and if the quality of the research published is maintained.”

Author archiving
Let’s look at each one of these initiatives in turn. Firstly, we examine author archiving, or author posting, as it’s sometimes called. Elsevier’s   policy allows authors to post their accepted author manuscript to an institutional repository or home page, provided it is not for commercial purposes or purposes of systematic distribution. “An author may post their accepted author manuscripts that incorporate changes made during the publishing peer-review process on his personal website and on his institutions’ website, including its institutional repository. Each posting should include a citation and a link to the journal’s home page,” explains Phimister.

Elsevier was an early adopter of the author archiving policy and received praise for it. Professor Peter Suber, in a SPARC Open Access Newsletter published at the time of the policy’s launch said, “Elsevier deserves our thanks for adopting this most helpful policy.”1 Similarly, Prof. Stevan Harnad recognized Elsevier as a publisher that “…has heeded the need and the expressed desire of the research community.”2

Since Elsevier implemented this policy in 2004, many other publishers have followed suit. Phimister reports, “About two-thirds of publishers and 90% of articles published each year have adopted this posting policy. Approximately 5% of authors make use of the policy, with many manuscripts appearing online as electronic   pre-prints.”

Why don’t more authors self-archive? Phimister believes it’s a testament to excellent access levels. “Elsevier works hard to promote its journals’ content and to increase visibility. And authors understand that having the research published by Elsevier already provides a ‘seal of approval’ and easy accessibility for most researchers,” he says.

Service to authors
He continues, “If there are opportunities to further provide services for our authors, we will look into them. For example, for the last couple of years, even before the recent NIH mandate, we’ve been depositing author’s manuscripts into a third-party repository, NIH PubMed Central. We’ve been working with the NIH and National Library of Medicine (hosts of PubMed Central) to create a sustainable approach to archiving manuscripts on this public platform. ”

Article Sponsorship
The second initiative, on trial since May 2006, is article   sponsorship. “There’s a small community of authors who have requested that their published journal article be available openly to non-subscribers on ScienceDirect,” explains Phimister. Elsevier is now testing this option for around 40 journals. “We offer authors the option to sponsor non-subscriber access for individual articles. This option costs authors $3,000; a charge necessary to offset publishing costs – from managing article submission to peer review, typesetting, tagging and indexing articles, hosting articles on dedicated servers, supporting sales and marketing to ensure global dissemination via ScienceDirect and preserving the published article in perpetuity.”

Partnering with funding bodies
While we’re on the subject of sponsorship, it’s worth highlighting Elsevier’s partnerships with the Wellcome Trust and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). “We engaged with The Wellcome Trust and HHMI when they announced archiving policies for their grant recipients. In each case, there was a strong desire to identify a solution that would serve our authors and researchers that they fund. By working closely together, we have been able to identify agreeable   solutions and we are actively trying to make both policies a success,” says Phimister.

Access to the Recent Archive
Free access to recent archives is the third initiative Elsevier is testing with a number of   journals. Essentially, access to any user, whether a subscriber or not, is granted after a pre-determined period of time since publication. This time period depends on a journal’s individual usage characteristics and is decided in consultation with society partners. At the moment, all Cell Press titles, as well as some Elsevier and society titles, make their content available free to non-subscribers after a period of one year or more. Journals in fields where usage is spread more over time may be available after a longer period, such as 24 months.

Invest and engage
“We continually invest in areas that will enhance the communication of science and health research,” reports Phimister. “We are willing to test different approaches and engage with the communities we serve. From editors to authors, reviewers and researchers, there shouldn’t be any hesitation to engage with Elsevier on access issues. We invite all members of the scientific community to keep this in mind.”
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To cite this article, please use: Kirsten Spry, "Disseminating health & science research to a wider audience", Elsevier Editors' Update, Issue 22, May 2008

Useful Links
  Elsevier’s Access and Dissemination policies

Citations
1. SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #74, June 2, 2004
2. Posting to American Scientist Open Access Forum, May 27, 2004

Please send responses to: EditorsUpdate@Elsevier.com