Another #RWA response from me. More to come, I am sure.

This is a comment I left at another blog.  Thought it was worth its own blog post.

Nobody is telling Elsevier that they have to accept manuscripts that had been done with NIH or other US Federal funding. They could just say, “Dude, take your article elsewhere.” It isn’t like they don’t know that the author final manuscript is going to the PMC 12 months later.

Let me be clear — the versions of articles that are deposited with PubMed Central are manuscripts that have not been peer-reviewed. Here is a list of journals that do/do not accept the publishers “work product.” http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/hslt/miner/research_and_publishing/publisherspoliciesonpubmedcentralminerlibrary.cfm
 
If anything, the actions and public letters from Elsevier, Wiley, AAA, etc. (See at http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/library/publicaccess) will drive more scientist manuscripts to OA publishers. This way, the public will get to easily read the final published peer-reviewed version instead of only having free access to the author manuscript.

The scientists are catching on, the publishers are afraid of losing their cash cow.