Voyages into publisher copyright – End of course exam

In the last 4 posts we have seen several varieties of Open Access (or Free Access) (or Hidden Access) or Fuzzy Access. Now it’s time to see how well you have been following these tutorials. So we have picked yet another major publisher – Blackwell – and we are going to show you the web pages and leave you to work out what the access is and what the labelling on the web pages is. Here is the first publisher web page:

Blackwell Publishing’s Position on Open Access

Open Access is an important development in scholarly communications which aims to deliver unrestricted access to academic research to all those who seek it. Blackwell Publishing has been proactive in the debate: monitoring the evolving issues, contributing to government and industry evaluation initiatives, and advising the 665 societies and 800+ journal editors with whom we work.
At Blackwell our primary goal is to facilitate the dissemination of research through the licensing of access to institutions and individual customers whilst continuing to provide a return to the societies for whom we publish. We will support Open Access models which ensure that viable high quality society publishing continues to flourish.
Following is a summary of the ways in which Blackwell Publishing and the societies with whom we publish are responding to the calls for Open Access publishing:

  1. Self-archiving – Our copyright assignment policy allows authors to self-archive their final version of their article on personal websites or institutional repositories.
  2. Author pays – We are offering a new service called Online Open which gives authors the choice to pay a publication fee in order for their article to be openly accessible to all.
  3. Free back files – Several journals offer free access to content after a set time period, or to certain types of material such as review articles.
  4. Developing world access We offer free or low cost access to libraries in the poorest countries through our participation in the HINARI, AGORA, OARE, INASP and related initiatives.

In this post we’ll concentrate on 2 (author pays). Note that the article is described as “openly accessible”. Blackwell “support Open Access models… ” and respond to “the calls for Open Access publishing…”. So is “Online Open” one of them. Read this very carefully because that’s your first question (BTW employees of Blackwell are eligible for this competition):

About Online Open

Online Open offers authors who wish to publish their research in a Blackwell journal the opportunity to ensure that their article is immediately made freely available for all to access online.
This pay-to-publish option is an important part of Blackwell’s response to the calls for open access and our commitment to viable high quality publishing on behalf of societies.

Authors pay-to-publish

Authors of accepted peer-reviewed articles may choose to pay a fee in order for their published article to be made freely accessible to all via our online journals platform, Blackwell Synergy.
Authors are required to download the OnlineOpen Form from the individual journal’s website or by clicking a link in the Instructions for Authors.
For 2007, the Online Open fee is fixed at US$2600, 1950 Euros or £1300 (plus VAT where applicable). Any additional standard publication charges will also apply, such as for color images or supplementary datasets.
The publication fee is charged on acceptance of the article and should be paid within 30 days by credit card by the author or other funding agency. Payment must be received in full for the article to be published Online Open.
In addition to publication online via Blackwell Synergy, authors of Online Open articles are permitted to post the final, published PDF of their article on a website, institutional repository or other free public server, immediately on publication. Blackwell Publishing will also deposit the final text of relevant Online Open articles on publication with PubMedCentral (PMC) in addition to any mirror of PMC (such as UKPMC).

Articles are published as normal

All Online Open articles are treated in the same way as any other article. They go through the journal’s standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit.
The accepted articles are prepared for publication in the usual manner and are posted online on Blackwell Synergy with the full range of features associated with that journal. The articles are archived for perpetuity and are registered at relevant Abstracting and Indexing Services and at CrossRef.

Readers have full access

The only difference for the reader is that they can access all Online Open articles without restriction, something that may not be available for subscription-based articles.
Online Open articles are identified on Blackwell Synergy as being freely available for all. They are also included in the print edition of journals with an indicator which shows that the article is available for free online.

Impact on subscription prices

During the first six months of each year we undertake our annual pricing review for the following year. One of the key factors we take into account in setting subscription prices is any increase in the amount of material we expect to publish in the journal in the following year.
We will continue to use this information in setting pricing but only take into account material published under the traditional publishing model. Any articles published under the Online Open model are excluded from this calculation.

Note to authors funded by the Wellcome Trust

The Online Open service is approved by the Wellcome Trust and mentioned in its information for authors as such.

[…]

OK – you’ve read this. so
QUESTION 1 (20 marks)
“Is Online Open compatible with the full BBB declaration of Open Access? (see Peter Suber, Bill Hooker and Klaus Graf for precise definitions. If it’s not compatible, what is the difference?”
OK – you’ve finished the question. Did you find the answer from the rubric above? No? Well neither did I. Readers can “access all articles without restriction”. Let’s guess that means full Open Access and that they won’t send the lawyers. Probably a bare pass mark.
What you forgot is that the Second Law of Publisher Obfuscation means that you cannot find the information where you expected but in a completely different place. Where you SHOULD have looked for information about Online Open is “Author Self-Archiving”. Obvious, when you see the answer. Now read this very carefully:

Blackwell Publishing and Author Self-archiving

Blackwell Publishing recognizes the importance of the Open Access debate for scholarly communications and its aim to deliver unrestricted access to academic research to all those who seek it. As the world’s leading society publisher, Blackwell has a responsibility to ensure that viable high quality society publishing continues to flourish. As well as making an active contribution to the OA debate, we have also made a public commitment to support Open Access models which contribute to this goal. This now includes allowing the author to retain the copyright of their Article while granting Blackwell exclusive rights to publish it. The author may also self-archive their final version of the Article on personal websites or institutional repositories, while providing a link to the definitive published version for users to refer to.
All Blackwell Publishing Journals
Author rights prior to acceptance:
Provided they acknowledge that the Article has been submitted for publication in the journal from the relevant society and Blackwell Publishing, authors may:

  • share print or electronic copies of the Article with colleagues;
  • post an electronic version of the Article on their personal website, their employer’s website/repository and on free public servers in their subject area.

Standard Blackwell Publishing Journals
Author rights after acceptance:
The following author rights apply to all Blackwell journals, apart from Online Open articles (see below).
Provided they give appropriate acknowledgment to the journal, the relevant society and Blackwell Publishing, and give the full bibliographic reference for the Article when it is published, authors may:

  • share print or electronic copies of their version of the Article with colleagues (not the final published version);
    use all or part of the Article in other publications;
  • use the Article for educational or research purposes;
  • post their version of the Article on their personal website, their employer’s website/repository and on free public servers in their subject area after the embargo period stipulated by the journal has been passed (note that the embargo period will vary by journal, e.g. 6 months or 12 months, and that some journals do not have any embargo on self-archiving at all – see note below).
  • When posting on the web, authors must give full bibliographic details plus a link to the published version of the Article as follows: ‘The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com ‘.


Additional points to note:

  • Many journals, though not all, have an embargo period before which posting Articles on the web or in institutional or subject-based repositories is restricted. This is in order to provide extra protection to the subscriptions base of the journal. This embargo period is clearly stipulated on copyright agreements and in the terms and conditions relating to the use of PDF offprints.
  • Authors cannot reproduce the Article for commercial purposes (commercial purposes = ‘for monetary gain on [their] own account or on that of a third party, or for indirect financial gain by a commercial entity’). However, this does not affect an author’s rights to receive a royalty or other payment for works of scholarship.

Guidelines for Librarians/Institutional Repository Managers
Librarians who are managing their institution’s repository should approach the authors within their institutions directly, rather than the publisher. The authors of Articles which are published in Blackwell journals will be able to provide their final version of their Articles for posting and can confirm the embargo period on posting the Article on the web. The institutional repository record should include full bibliographic details and provide a link so that users can make reference to the final published version of the Article.
Online Open Articles
The following author rights apply to all Online Open articles.
Provided they give appropriate acknowledgment to the journal, the relevant society and Blackwell Publishing, and give the full bibliographic reference for the Article when it is published, authors may:

  • share print or electronic copies of the Article with colleagues;
  • use all or part of the Article and abstract in personal compilations or other scholarly publications of their own work (and may receive a royalty or other payment for such work);
  • use the Article within their employer’s institution or company for educational or research purposes, including use in course packs;
  • post the final PDF of the Article on their own personal website, on their employer’s website/repository and on free public servers in their subject area. Blackwell Publishing will deposit the full-text of their Article on publication with PubMed Central (PMC) in addition to any mirror of PMC (e.g. UKPMC). Electronic versions of the accepted Article must include a link to the published version of the Article together with the following text: ‘For full bibliographic citation, please refer to the version available at www.blackwell-synergy.com ‘.

Third parties will be entitled to re-use of the Article, in whole or in part, in accordance with the conditions outlined in the Creative Commons Deed, Attribution 2.5 Non-Commercial (further details from www.creativecommons.org), which allows Open Access dissemination of your work, but does not permit commercial exploitation or the creation of derivative works without your permission. Please address any queries to journalsrights@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com

Third parties (readers) have CC-BY-NC rights, and these can be MORE than the author has!
QUESTION 2 (20 marks): What rubric (license, copyright) will an Online Open article (and its context, TOC, abstract) carry? (HINT: find an Online Open article – if you can and read it).
OK – done?
What did you find?
Well I found everything! Copyright journal, copyright authors. Copyright nobody. To be fair Blackwell manages society journals. Let’s end on one of happier ones I found:

Temporal and mechanistic dissociation of ATP and adenosine release during ischaemia in the mammalian hippocampus1

1Re-use of this article is permitted in accordance with the Creative Commons Deed, Attribution 2.5, which does not permit commercial exploitation.

and in the paper (PDF) itself:
OnlineOpen: This article is available free online at www.blackwell-synergy.com
Copyright The Authors
Journal Compilation Copyright 2007 International Society for Neurochemistry,
So, Other journals take note – it CAN be done! All it requires is a few words at the technical editing stage. That won’t be too painful, will it.

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One Response to Voyages into publisher copyright – End of course exam

  1. Bill says:

    1. This now includes allowing the author to retain the copyright of their Article while granting Blackwell exclusive rights to publish it.
    I don’t like that much. What good is retaining copyright if I am forced to grant an exclusive license? If I were going to pay several thousand dollars in order to retain my copyright, I should think I’d pick a journal that would actually let me retain it. (Same goes for CC-BY-NC licensing; if I’m paying that much I want CC-BY.)
    2. ‘The definitive version is available at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com ‘.
    I don’t like that much either. I think we are approaching a time when the fossilized version on a publisher’s website or in a printed journal will *not* be the definitive version. (This is pretty damn picky of me, I admit.)
    3. post [various versions at various stages] of the Article on their own personal website, on their employer’s website/repository and on free public servers in their subject area
    Does that description include any OAI-PMH compliant repository I care to use? If I had really retained copyright, I wouldn’t even have to ask.
    Final grade from me: “gentleman’s C”. Barely scrapes by.

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