The deadline for Elsevier retroactive conversion requests is approaching — it’s 31 January.
Please take a moment to read this Library News blog post from October last year, in case you missed it. This post explains the idea of retroactive conversion and what authors should do if they realise that they could have published their paper with APC-free OA in 2024, but missed the opportunity at the point of publication.
If you receive any questions about this issue, there are two main steps to responding.
First, verify that the journal is covered by our current agreement with Elsevier. You do this by visiting the Article Process Charge Support page and clicking on the Elsevier journals list. If the journal is not covered, then no APC-free Open Access is available for the paper.
Second, if the journal is covered, then advise the author to write a short email to the Elsevier OA support team. Please share the above blog post with the author because it includes the exact steps for how to write this email and what to say.
If, after that, there are additional challenges, then you’re welcome to refer the question to csu@ualberta.ca.
Upcoming, CSU will post a message in the Academics’ Digest email about this issue. A relatively small number of authors (approx. 100) have papers eligible for retroactive conversion. A fraction of those authors will act on the Digest post, and a smaller fraction yet will reach out to the Library for assistance. Still, we wanted to give everybody a heads-up in advance.
Thanks for your attention to this!