In February, we informed you of a series of important changes that we are making to how the Elsevier mathematics program will be run. In this letter, we would like to update you on where we currently stand, and inform you of some new initiatives we have undertaken based upon the feedback we have received from the community.
Pricing
We already indicated that our target is for all of our core mathematics titles to be priced at or below US$11 per article (equivalent to 50-60 cents per normal typeset page), placing us below most University presses, some societies and all other commercial competitors. That will lead to a number of our titles seeing further and significant price reductions from their next volumes.
Further to this, and in response to feedback from the community for more flexibility around the packages and collections that we offer to libraries, we will take the added step of defining a smaller subject collection (around 15-20 journals) with our key core mathematics titles. The definitive list of journals will be determined shortly but will in any case include journals like Advances in Mathematics, Journal of Algebra, Journal of Number Theory, Journal of Functional Analysis, Journal of Combinatorial Theory A and B, and European Journal of Combinatorics, available with the discount levels offered on our subject collections.
Open Archives
In February, we made the archives of 14 core mathematics journals open, from four years after publication, back to 1995, the year when we started publishing digitally. We made more scholarly mathematics content freely available than has ever occurred before. We have now gone further and expanded the open archives back to 1995 for 43 journals in mathematics and related areas. For a full listing of Elsevier journals with an Open Archive, please see our information page.
Support for reviewers
At present, reviewers receive 30 days access to ScienceDirect and Scopus. For mathematics, this period is simply too short given the intensive and lengthy review process. We also hear of retired mathematics researchers without access to the current literature who still are actively reviewing work. Therefore, to support reviewers in their work, we will provide editors of the mathematics journals with the opportunity each year to select 50 reviewers whom we will provide with free access to all mathematics journals for one year.
Access for the developing world
We are a founding partner in Research4Life, a public/private partnership providing journal content to researchers in the developing world. More than 2000 Elsevier journals and 6,000 Elsevier e-books are available through this program. In addition to the core Hinari and Agora programs, we have now ensured that all Elsevier mathematics titles will be also be available via the Access to Research for Development and Innovation (ARDI) program since we understand that this is particularly accessible to mathematicians in these countries.
Support to the mathematics community
Based on the feedback we have received, we are taking steps to improve and make visible our support to the mathematics community. Individual initiatives, such as our support for the development of the STIX fonts, or the individual journal level sponsorships are often overlooked. As announced, we are in the process of setting up a Scientific Council for mathematics. We believe this Council will play an instrumental role in advising us on our journal programs and on how we can best support the mathematics community going forward.
It is our goal is to ensure that the leading mathematics journals that we publish are as valuable and respected – and contribute as much to the community – as any other mathematics journal. We want to work in tandem with the mathematics community to ensure that our mathematics program is meeting the needs of this important community, globally and locally.
We have a long history in serving the research communities by publishing trusted, leading-edge information and by disseminating and preserving literature to meet the information needs of the world’s present and future scientists. The needs of our customers are changing but the 7,000 people who work at Elsevier are fully committed to advancing science by addressing the different needs of different groups and the research community as a whole around the world. We trust the above summary of initiatives shows our intention to address the issues of interest and concern in the mathematics community. Again, we very much welcome your views at: mathematics@elsevier.com
Sincerely,
David Clark & Laura Hassink
Senior Vice Presidents, Physical Sciences
P.S. We will attend the following mathematics conferences in the next few months; we welcome the opportunity to meet with you, please contact your Elsevier publisher directly should you wish to discuss matters in more detail.
02 May 2012
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