Elsevier Clamps Down On Academics Posting Their Own Papers Online

Academic publisher Elsevier has been targeting open access websites and universities that are posting their own academic articles online with takedown notices for copyright infringement.

It started earlier this month, when Elsevier sent open access forum Academia.edu 2,800 takedown notices for articles it owns the copyright to within a couple of weeks. Academia.edu is a research-sharing website which allows academics to post their papers online in order to "accelerate the world's research". On 6 December, many of the academics who had signed up to the service received an email from Academia.edu explaining that their papers were going to be delisted.

Guy Leonard, a research fellow at the University of Exeter, posted a screengrab of the message, which said: "Academia.edu is committed to enabling the transition to a world where there is open access to academic literature. Elsevier takes a different view and is currently upping the ante in its opposition of academics sharing their own papers online."