SocArXiv debuts, as SSRN acquisition comes under scrutiny

[Richard Poynder]

The arrival of a new preprint server for the social sciences called SocArXiv comes just a month after news that Elsevier is acquiring the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), a preprint repository and online community founded in 1994 by two researchers.

 

Given the concern and disappointment expressed over the SSRN purchase by researchers, it is no surprise that the launch of SocArXiv has been very well received. Still smarting from Elsevier’s 2013 acquisition of Mendeley – another formerly independent service for managing and sharing scholarly papers – many (especially OA advocates) were appalled to hear that the publisher has bought a second OA asset. The reasons for this were encapsulated in a blog post by University of Iowa law professor Paul Gowder entitled “SSRN has been captured by the enemy of open knowledge”.

 

This concern has also attracted the attention of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which has launched a review of the SSRN purchase. The FTC is currently contacting many institutions and experts in scholarly publishing to assess the implications of the acquisition, presumably in order to decide whether it needs to intervene in some way.

 

Elsevier is understandably keen to downplay the interest the US government is showing in its latest acquisition. “The Federal Trade Commission is conducting a routine, informal review of our acquisition of the Social Sciences Research network,” vice president and head of global corporate relations at Elsevier Tom Reller emailed me. “Elsevier’s interest in SSRN is and has been about SSRNs’ ethos, a place where it is free to upload, and free to download. We are working cooperatively with the FTC, and believe that the review will conclude favourably.”

 

In other words, Elsevier does not believe the FTC’s interest in its purchase will lead to a formal investigation.

 

But however timely SocArXiv’s launch may be, the service is not a response to the SSRN acquisition, the director of the new service, and professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, Philip Cohen assured me. “We were already in planning before we heard about the SSRN purchase.”

 

More here: http://poynder.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/socarxiv-debuts-as-ssrn-acquisition.html

 

[Rebecca Kennison]

As a member of the SocArXiv steering committee, I can confirm Philip's timeline. The first tweet about SocArXiv was (intentionally) on May 1 (see https://twitter.com/socarxiv/status/726765268018548736). Just over two weeks later came the announcement of Elsevier's acquisition of SSRN. But the timing (and subsequent missteps by SSRN) have certainly helped SocArXiv to achieve gratifyingly quick traction.

Best,

Rebecca

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Rebecca Kennison
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