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RSS feedsNuclear physics authors can opt to pay for their articles to be published in six physics journals published by Elsevier under a new Sponsored Articles scheme which the company insists is very different from open access.
Six Elsevier physics journals have adopted the Sponsored Articles programme, which allows authors to pay a fee to ensure that their article is available for free on the Elsevier online service ScienceDirect . Only articles that have already been accepted for publication will be offered the sponsored option.
Nick Fowler, director of strategy at Elsevier, is adamant that Sponsored Articles is not a form of open access or a U-turn by the company. Sir Crispin Davis, Elsevier chief executive officer , fully backs the scheme, Fowler said. “Davis is explicitly opposed to the author-pays journal model because if you are an author and you submit an article and I’m editor, who knows I’ll get paid if I accept your article.”
Elsevier is now looking to open up a debate on how the different access models are described. “We believe that Sponsored Articles is an accurate title. Open access is a confusing term that is used to describe four different models,” he said. Fowler believes that using the term OA to describe author pays, delayed open access and open archives is confusing.
The information industry has welcomed Sponsored Articles, but cynically believes it is only a response to the particle physics centre CERN adopting open access . “The timing of the announcement and the subjects they have chosen is too much of a coincidence,” said Fred Friend, JISC scholarly communications consultant. Jan Velterop, director of open access at STM rival Springer, agrees with Friend on CERN, but added: “That Elsevier is experimenting with new models is a good thing.”
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