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Abstract
The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) offers online posting of papers on the SSRN web site. The system of posting is advertised by the SSRN as open access. Nevertheless, the SSRN hinders access to posted papers. This hindrance arises from the gatekeeper function of the SSRN system. Specifically, subjective determinations are made by the SSRN site administrators about whether posted papers should or should not be searchable by the SSRN search engine. It is difficult, sometimes impossible, to find posted papers on SSRN when a posted paper is not connected with the SSRN search engine. A posted paper which is not searchable is, in effect, not really posted, regardless of the nominal posting by the SSRN because it. Thus, the advertised open access feature of SSRN is essentially a misrepresentation by the SSRN of its true nature. The SSRN gatekeeper function is ill advised for another reason. It is doubtful that the SSRN site administrators are actually capable of distinguishing between posted papers which should benefit from the SSRN search engine, and posted papers which should not. The result: some poorly written or researched papers could be located through the SSRN search engine, while some very good papers may not be discovered through an SSRN search. Given this situation, three solutions are offered for the negation, by the SSRN, of open access to posted papers.
Introduction
The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a web site which maintains an electronic repository of scholarly papers in the fields of law, economics, social sciences, and humanities.1
Benefits and Detriments
A benefit to writers for posting their work on SSRN, on the SSRN, is open access, by potential readers, to posted papers.2 This benefit is offset by a detriment. After a paper has been submitted by a writer, a decision is made by the SSRN about whether a posted paper should or should not be searchable by the SSRN search engine. These decisions are unilateral, and the decisions are final. A writer has no way to request or obtain a review of a decision that a posted paper should not be searchable by the SSRN search engine. Thus, writers whose papers are not searchable are short-changed by the SSRN. The promise of open access to posted...