Elsevier vows to keep price of mathematics journals low

Jacob Aron, reporter

Journal publisher Elsevier has announced changes in the pricing of its mathematics titles, and withdrawn support for a controversial, proposed US law, which has subsequently been scrapped. Both moves follow a boycott of the company's journals, which was led by mathematicians who objected to Elsevier's prices and its support for the legislation.

David Clark and Laura Hassink, senior vice presidents for physical science at Elsevier, which is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, have written a letter to the mathematics community explaining the price changes. "Some of these are new initiatives, and some reflect changes that we have been working on over a longer period," they write.

Elsevier is owned by the transnational Reed Elsevier, as is Reed Business Information, publisher of New Scientist.

The company says the target for its core mathematics titles is a price of $11 or less per article, which would place it below most university presses, some societies and its commercial competitors. "Where journals are more expensive than this, we will lower our prices," says the letter.

It has also opened the archives of 14 mathematics journals, offering free access to articles published more than four years ago back to 1995, when the company began publishing digitally. "All current and future papers featured in these journals will become free to read, for subscribers and non subscribers alike," say Clark and Hassink.

On 27 February, Elsevier also announced that it had withdrawn its support for the Research Works Act, a proposed US law that aimed to prevent government-funded researchers from being required to publish in open-access journals. The same day, the bill's sponsors in Congress, Darrell Issa and Carolyn Maloney, said they would no longer pursue the legislation.

"The American people deserve to have access to research for which they have paid," according to a statement released by the pair. "This conversation needs to continue, and we have come to the conclusion that the Research Works Act has exhausted the useful role it can play in the debate."

Timothy Gowers, a University of Cambridge mathematician who initiated the boycott, posted his reaction to the announcements on the social networking site Google+: "These are welcome changes, but they don't exactly change the publishing landscape. Having said that, they also claim that this is just the beginning."

The boycott has garnered more than 7,500 signatures, many from academics working outside of mathematics. Signees vow not to peer-review or submit papers for any of Elsevier's scientific journals.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1d00c5d0/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C0A20Celsevier0Eannounces0Echanges0Eto0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

jason wu jason wu the patriot nick diaz vs carlos condit hall of fame occupy dc ufc 143 fight card