Posted with permission:
On Mon, 16 Apr 2007, Alexander Borbely wrote:
> I enjoyed reading your spirited advice to the World Congress of Science
> Journalists.
>
> My wife just gave me the instructions for depositing manuscripts she
> received for a paper in the European J Neuroscience. I was astonished to
> read that depositing the final version of the manuscript is prohibited
> (see Section "Accepted version"). Making available only the version
> originally submitted is not very useful if major modifications based
> on the referees' recommendation are made.
>
> Are you familiar with these instructions and what is your opinion?
>
> Alexander A. Borbély, M.D.
> Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology
> Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology
> University of Zurich
I am very familiar with these instructions. Blackwell's is a 12-month
embargo publisher.
The solution is extremely simple: always deposit the postprint (i.e.,
the refereed, revised, accepted final draft) immediately upon acceptance
for publication (definitely not 12 months later!) and set the access as
"Closed Access" instead of "Open Access," if you wish, which means the
metadata (author, title, journal, abstract) are openly accessible to
anyone on the web immediately, but the full-text is not. In addition, as
I wrote before, make sure to implement the "Fair Use" Button (in your
university's repository, ZORA): EMAIL EPRINT REQUEST.
http://www.eprints.org/news/features/request_button.php
All searches will lead to the Closed Access Deposit, and that in turn
has the Button, which will provide for all usage needs during the
1-year embargo, semi-automatically, almost immediately, via almost-OA.
Embargoes will all die (I promise!) a *very* quick death once all
institutions mandate immediate deposit like this; but embargoes will win
the day if institutions foolishly make the mandated *deposit* date
contingent on when publisher embargo's say-so.
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/71-guid.html
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/136-guid.html
Several other points:
(1) Unlike Blackwell's journals, most journals (62%) already endorse
immediate OA deposit.
http://romeo.eprints.org/stats.php
(2) There is no reason whatsoever to hold out for the publisher's PDF:
The author's postprint is just fine for all research purposes! The PDF
is completely irrelevant, one way or the other.
(3) Although it must always be left as an individual judgment for the
author to make in the case of each individual paper, it is also good
scholarly practice, wherever possible, to also deposit, even earlier,
the pre-refereeing preprint (especially if submitting to an embargo
publisher): The repository will tag the preprint clearly as an
unrefereed draft, with a prominent link to the refereed postprint (and
from there to the "Fair Use" button); this will also allow search
engines to pick up the full-text for full-text indexing in the case of a
Closed Access deposit, leading to many more discoveries of both the
preprint and the postprint.
I do not for one microsecond believe that any publisher's statement
that "a corrected version of the preprint (i.e., the postprint) cannot
be made OA immediately" has any legal validity; nor do I think such
nonsense could ever be enforced, had it had any legal validity. But
instead of wasting still more time to wait for people to at last realize
this, and deposit their postprints as OA immediately, the
immediate-deposit/optional-access policy (plus the "Fair Use" button)
are the best compromise solution.)
Then nature can take its course. And meanwhile researcher access needs
are taken care of, almost-immediately, through almost-OA, during any
putative embargo period.
Stevan Harnad
> European Journal of Neuroscience
>
> Dear Author
>
> PDF offprints
>
> Blackwell Publishing is pleased to advise you that a PDF file of your
> paper is attached to this email.
>
> Please note that this replaces the procedure of sending free offprints by
> post.
>
> If you have any queries please contact the Production Editor at:
> ejn -- oxon.blackwellpublishing.com
>
> PDF Terms & Conditions
>
> Please note the following Terms and Conditions regarding the use of the
> attached PDF file of your Article. Use of this PDF file indicates consent
> to these Terms and Conditions.
>
> Provided that you give appropriate acknowledgement to the Journal,
> Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and Blackwell Publishing,
> and give full bibliographic reference for the Article, and as long as you
> do not sell or reproduce the Article or any part of it for commercial
> purposes (i.e. for monetary gain on your own account or on that of a
> third
> party, or for indirect financial gain by a commercial entity) you may use
> the PDF, in the following ways:
> o you may share print or electronic copies of the Article with
> colleagues;
> o you may use all or part of the Article and abstract, without
> revision or modification, in personal compilations or other publications
> of your own work;
> o you may use the Article within your employer's institution or
> company for educational or research purposes, including use in course
> packs.
>
> Please note that you are not permitted to post the Blackwell Publishing
> PDF version of the Article online.
>
>
> Self-archiving of author manuscripts
>
> ˇ Submitted version: You may post the original manuscript of the
> Article, as submitted for publication in the Journal, on your own
> personal
> website, on your employer's website/repository and on free public servers
> in your subject area. We ask that as part of the publishing process you
> give appropriate acknowledgement to the Journal, Federation of European
> Neuroscience Societies and Blackwell Publishing. You agree not to sell or
> reproduce the Article or any part of it for commercial purposes (i.e. for
> monetary gain on your own account or on that of a third party, or for
> indirect financial gain by a commercial entity).
>
> ˇ Accepted version: Twelve months after publication you may post
> the original manuscript of the Article, as originally submitted for
> publication in the Journal, and updated to include any amendments made
> after peer review, on your own personal website, on your employer's
> website/repository and on free public servers in your subject area.
> Appropriate acknowledgement to the Journal, Federation of European
> Neuroscience Societies and Blackwell Publishing, and full bibliographic
> reference for the Article must be given. In addition you agree not to
> sell
> or reproduce the Article or any part of it for commercial purposes (i.e.
> for monetary gain on your own account or on that of a third party, or for
> indirect financial gain by a commercial entity). The electronic version
> must include a link to the published version of the Article together with
> the following text: 'The definitive version is available at
> <http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/>www.blackwell-synergy.com'
>
> For additional information regarding any use of this PDF file not covered
> by these Terms and Conditions, please refer to the Blackwell Rights
> Department at:
> journalsrights -- oxon.blackwellpublishing.com
>
> Use of this PDF file indicates consent to these terms and conditions.
Received on Tue Apr 17 2007 - 03:01:12 BST