[Apologies for cross-posting]
In the Wiley-Blackwell copyright assignment form, which most authors
publishing in this company's journals will sign, it states (under
item `C.2. Permitted Uses by Contributor > Accepted Version') that:
"Re-use of the accepted and peer-reviewed (but not final) version of
the Contribution shall be by separate agreement with Wiley-Blackwell"
I took this to mean that authors can, if they want to, approach
Wiley-Blackwell on an article-by-article basis for permission to
deposit their final draft manuscripts in their institutional
repository.
However, having chased up permission with Wiley-Blackwell on behalf
of an author here at the Open University, I received (after a number
of email exchanges) the following (apparently definitive) answer from
their Associate Permissions Manager:
"The submission version is the only version we allow to be placed
into institutional repositories. We do not allow the post-peer review
article, the author's final draft, or any other version to be
deposited. Therefore, I can confirm that permission is hereby refused
in this case."
So, unfortunately, given the size of Wiley-Blackwell (fourth largest
academic journals publisher?), it seems we have a disappointing
barrier to Green OA. Of course, Wiley has always not permitted final
draft self-archiving, but it now appears that in merging with
Blackwell they have stuck with this policy rather than embracing
Blackwell's.
Although Wiley-Blackwell do offer compliance with the `major' funder
mandates (e.g. NIH), it leaves me wondering how they intend to serve
their authors who are mandated (for example) by one of the UK
Research Councils. Have they thought this through? Are they prepared
to lose authors who (in theory at least) could not possibly publish
with them because they are not permitted to self-archive?
Colin Smith
Research Repository Manager
Open Research Online (ORO)
Open University Library
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
Tel: +44(0)1908 332971
Email: c.j.smith_at_open.ac.uk
Web:
http://oro.open.ac.uk
Blog:
http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/oro
Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/smithcolin
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Received on Thu May 21 2009 - 19:03:51 BST