Elsevier is a subsidiary of RELX, a leading data broker and risk surveillance firm that sells to law enforcement and govt agencies.
In this light, this new report examines in detail how Elsevier's ScienceDirect website shares personal data with third parties. It documents data practices that "directly conflict with library privacy standards" and raises questions about the potential for data collected from academic products to be used in RELX's risk surveillance products:
https://sparcopen.org/news/2023/sparc-report-urges-action-to-address-concerns-with-sciencedirect-data-privacy-practices/
Periodic reminder of why the taxpayer argument for OA ain't great:
* it encourages nationalism in research. "Why should non-taxpayers from elsewhere get access?"
* not everyone in every country pays taxes anyway
* lots of research is not taxpayer funded
Yup, that's what "transformative agreements" look like:
“We run a substantial risk of getting stuck in a perpetual transformation that also contributes to increasing costs."
https://www.su.se/english/news/open-access-need-to-move-away-from-transformative-agreements-1.683787
Open access: Need to move away from transformative agreements Sweden is far ahead when it comes to promoting open access to scholarly publications. But there is risk of getting stuck in a permanent transformation that favours large commercial publishers. A new report from the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions develops a strategy on how to work in negotiations with the publishers.
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