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Elsevier et al have so far played very nice with arXiv, for instance by not demanding that papers submitted to Elsevier journals not appear on it. Technically
by hugh4 11y ago
Elsevier et al have so far played very nice with arXiv, for instance by not demanding that papers submitted to Elsevier journals not appear on it.
Technically the arxiv may right now be illegally hosting many thousands of papers whose authors actually ticked a box granting exclusive publication rights to Elsevier. Or any number of other journals. Elsevier benignly neglects this, but if you really start threatening their business model then they can make life very difficult for the arXiv.
- nmrm2 11y agoIf Elsevier tries to kill arxiv, they'll lose a huge fraction of the academic publishing market.
- hugh4 11y agoThey certainly will, so this is something that would only happen once Elsevier is in a death spiral.
- davidgerard 11y agoBasically Elsevier supporting the Research Works Act was the last straw. (And what inspired Gowers to start the boycott.) They could do this, but it would be pretty much the final fuck-you. Not that that makes it implausible, of course. Look at the backlash at Wikipedia for just accepting account access for editors from Elsevier. That sort of arrangement has gone on with various academic publishers for years - but in 2015, it creates a backlash. (I can assure you that in and around Wikimedia, pretty much everyone's actual opinion is "Elsevier delenda est".)