[Open-access] Risks in using an Addendum

[Steven Bhardwaj]

Dear Colleagues,

I suspect the following question may seem frustrating, but it may become an
important talking point in our Open Access advocacy work at Boston
University.

We are advocating for an opt-out OA policy, as described
here<http://buoa.blogspot.com>.
A practical question has come up, and I am trying to improve our response
to it. I think that if we had a stronger response to this question, it
might ease the bureaucratic process greatly.

Question:

Consider a young Assistant Professor, "Professor Priya," who just got an
article accepted by a prestigious toll-access journal. She receives the
publishing contract in an email, and it restricts Green Open Access rather
strictly.

Earnestly complying with her university's new opt-out policy, Priya signs
the contract with an Author's
Addendum<http://www.bu.edu/dioa/authors/author-addendum/>,
and sends it in.

Should Priya be concerned about including this addendum? *Is there a risk
that her inclusion of the addendum will delay the article's publication, or
even cause the journal's acceptance of the article to be canceled?* Or, can
she rest assured that the publisher will reply back in a timely fashion,
allowing her to get the article published.

She is willing to agree to a reasonable embargo period, and even to opt-out
of some of the authors' rights reserved under the opt-out policy. But she
doesn't want to miss this opportunity to get this article published. The
tenure-track review board is meeting next month!


My institutional librarians have assured me that "Professor Priya" has
nothing to worry about. However, I am left with few advocacy tools other
than their anecdotal assurances. I would love to remove this nebulous worry
from the pro/con balance of an opt-out policy here at BU.

What kind of harder evidence could help assure the faculty that the
addendum will certainly not affect Priya's already-accepted article being
published in a timely fashion? A survey of institutional librarians? A
survey of publishers? A survey of journal editors?

Thanks much for your time and consideration of this query.

Sincerely,
-Steven Bhardwaj
sbhard at bu.edu
Economics PhD Candidate
Boston University for Open Access
buoa.blogspot.com
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