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Elsevier
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Elsevier Policies

Hosting articles

Hosting articles

Platforms such as repositories, preprint servers and scholarly collaboration networks can host research published by Elsevier following the guidelines below.

Principles

The following principles underpin our hosting policy:

  • Elsevier supports the STM Article Sharing Principles opens in new tab/window and we want to work in partnership with organizations aggregating, and making available, versions of articles published by researchers with Elsevier

    • This policy complements our sharing policy, which outlines how authors can share their research, and agreements with subscribing institutions about how licensed material can be shared

  • We believe that we all have a shared responsibility to work together to ensure researchers can share research quickly, easily and responsibly

    • This requires active partnering to ensure the coherence and integrity of the scientific record, to promote responsible sharing in a way that respects the needs of all stakeholders, and to enable impact and usage measurement in a distributed environment

  • Hosting platforms should develop and share COUNTER compliant opens in new tab/window usage statistics so that researchers and publishers have a full picture of how articles are shared and used

  • Where commercial organizations seek to benefit from hosting versions of articles on their platforms, formal commercial arrangements should be made with Elsevier. Non-commercial organizations can host documents under the terms of this policy.

  • Sites or repositories that provide a service to other organizations or agencies, even if those other organizations or agencies are themselves non-commercial entities, are considered to be providing a commercial service, and this service activity will also require a commercial arrangement with Elsevier

Non-commercial platforms

Guidance for non-commercial organizations and institutional repositories:

Preprint

  • Preprints can be hosted anytime, anywhere

  • If accepted for publication, then hosting organizations should link via the DOI from the preprint to the formal publication

    • Millions of researchers have access to the formal publications, and those links will help your users to find, access, cite and use the best available version

  • arXiv and RePEc can update a preprint immediately with the accepted manuscript (with CC BY-NC-ND) and a DOI link to the formal publication

  • Please note: Some society-owned titles and journals that operate double-anonymized peer review have different preprint policies, please check the journals Guide for Authors for further information

    • Preprints should not be added to or enhanced in any way in order to appear more like, or to substitute for, the final versions of articles

Accepted manuscript

  • A research institute can host its employees' and students' accepted manuscripts immediately via their institutional repository for internal institutional uses, or as part of an invitation-only work group on commercial sites with which Elsevier has an agreement

  • A research institute can host its employees' and students' accepted manuscripts publicly after the embargo period opens in new tab/window:

    • Via non-commercial hosting platforms, such as their institutional repository

    • Via commercial sites with which Elsevier has an agreement

    • As part of non-commercial Massive Open Online Courses

  • Other non-commercial organizations can host manuscripts, including publicly, after the embargo period opens in new tab/window has passed

In all cases, accepted manuscripts should:

  • Link to the formal publication via its DOI

  • Bear a CC-BY-NC-ND license — this is easy to do

  • Not be stored on an insecure network, or be discoverable or accessible except as described above

  • Not be added to or enhanced in any way to appear more like, or to substitute for, the Published Journal Article

  • Not be used or posted for commercial gain without a formal agreement with Elsevier

  • Not be used to substitute for services provided directly by the journal, for example, article aggregation, systematic distribution via e-mail lists or list servers or share buttons, posting or linking by commercial companies for use by customers of such companies (e.g., pharmaceutical companies and physician-prescribers)

Published journal article (PJA)

Policies for hosting published journal articles differ for subscription articles and open access articles:

Subscription articles

  • If you are the author’s institution, you may: distribute copies for classroom teaching and internal training, include the article in (online) coursework and courseware programs for use within the institution, include the article in funding applications, and publicly post the article as part of theses and dissertations, provided full attribution and acknowledgement of the original publication of the article (with DOI links back to the formal publications on ScienceDirect) is given.

  • Otherwise sharing is by agreement only

Open access articles

  • May be hosted according to the author-selected end-user license

    • This license should appear on the hosted version of the article along with a DOI link to the citable version of record on ScienceDirect

Commercial platforms

Guidance for commercial organizations:

Preprint

  • Preprints can be hosted anytime, anywhere

  • If accepted for publication, then hosting organizations should link via the DOI from the preprint to the formal publication

    • Millions of researchers have access to the formal publications, and those links will help your users to find, access, cite and use the best available version

  • Preprints should not be added to or enhanced in any way in order to appear more like, or to substitute for, the final versions of articles

Accepted manuscript

  • Commercial organizations, such as Scholarly Collaboration Networks (SCNs), are required to have an agreement with Elsevier for the aggregating and making available of articles on their platform

  • Subject to an agreement, a commercial organization can immediately host its users' accepted manuscripts for private scholarly sharing as part of an invitation-only work group and for public access after an embargo period

  • In all cases, accepted manuscripts should link to the formal publication via its DOI and bear a CC-BY-NC-ND license — this is easy to do

Manuscripts may not be:

  • Stored on an insecure network, or be discoverable or accessible except as described above

  • Added to or enhanced in any way to appear more like, or to substitute for, the Published Journal Article

  • Used or posted for commercial gain without a formal agreement with Elsevier, for example, by:

    • Associating advertising with the full-text of the manuscript

    • Providing hosting services to other repositories or to other organizations

    • Charging fees for document delivery or access

  • Used to substitute for services provided directly by the journal, for example:

    • Article aggregation

    • Systematic distribution via e-mail lists or list servers or share buttons

  • Posting or linking by commercial companies for use by customers of such companies (e.g., pharmaceutical companies and physician-prescribers)

Published journal article (PJA)

Policies for hosting published journal articles differ for subscription articles and gold open access articles:

Subscription articles

Gold open access articles

  • May be hosted according to the author-selected end-user license

    • This license should appear on the hosted version of the article along with a DOI link to the citable version of record on ScienceDirect

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