So when does open access become limited access?
Perhaps when the open access network in question is purchased by a very large well
known academic publisher? Which is just
what's happened, with Elsevier recently purchasing SSRN.
Some background information on the Social
Science Research Network SSRN…
SSRN is a world-wide collaboration of some 308,800
authors and 2.2 million users. It is
largely an open access resource, with most of its 670,000 abstracts and 560,800
downloadable, full text documents available free of charge. Like most open
access resources, authors can submit their pre-published papers free of charge
and thus research results are disseminated to the wider research community.
When you consider that the very reason the
likes of SSRN, ResearchGate and Academia.edu were created was to reduce the
control that commercial publishers have over research output, you can see why authors,
researchers and users are very concerned by this development.
Reading the press release on the SSRN website,
you could be forgiven for only seeing the benefits of such a purchase, but for
whom? Elsevier already purchased Mendeley,
which provides access to medical, technical and scientific information. Would it be too cynical to suggest that Elsevier
have covered their bases with the purchase of both a social science and a scientific network? And, will they stop there?
If I held such a view I wouldn’t be alone. David Matthews of the THES quotes a number of
researchers expressing a similar view.
Despite reassurances from Elsevier and SSRN, the research community isn’t
convinced that Elsevier’s actions are selfless.
For the full text of David Matthew’s piece,
please follow the link below.
Relevant Links