Accelerating the transition to full and immediate Open Access to scientific publications: LERU’s reaction to Plan S

In October 20-15, LERU told the world that ‘Christmas is Over’. Its statement ‘Moving Forwards on Open Access’ formed an important challenge to the 2016 Dutch Presidency of the EU, emphasising that research universities had had enough – things had to change in the academic publishing world. Plan S, a cooperation of Science Europe and Robert-Jan Smits (Open Access Envoy of the European Commission), is an adventurous attempt to take the debate further.

Plan S represents a bold plan fundamentally to change the pattern of academic publishing, moving decisively away from subscription journals to full and immediate Open Access (OA). From 1 January 2020 academic publications, where the research has been funded by public grants provided by national and European Research Councils and funding bodies, must be published in compliant Open Access Journals or on compliant Open Access platforms. The vision is ambitious and represents a further step in the unstoppable move to immediate Open Access. The researchers will retain their copyright and will not be able to assign it to publishers as a condition of being published. Article Processing Charges (APCs) will be capped at a certain level and, crucially, payment of hybrid APCs will no longer be possible via this funding mechanism.

‘Plan S represents an important move in the debate over how to achieve full Open Access’, says Professor Kurt Deketelaere, Secretary General of LERU. It is clear that hybrid APC payments are not delivering a transformative move to full and immediate OA. The capping of APC payments and the requirement for researchers to retain their copyright represent a momentous change in the future publishing landscape. ‘The move to full Open Access was stalling, and this plan is a major step forward in the right direction’. ‘The statement is timely and welcome’, says Dr Paul Ayris, Chair of the LERU INFO community. ‘It is potentially a game changer in the move to full and immediate Open Access’.

The way Plan S is implemented will be important:

• Plan S works in a European setting, and Europe will be a leader in setting a new direction of travel for academic publishing. It will be great to see worldwide take-up of this new position – to effect change in publishing practice on a global scale.
• The statement says that APCs will be capped, but does not give a value. It would be really helpful for a value to be stated.
• Offsetting is emphasized in the statement. This is vital in a transition period, where parts of the world will still want to publish under the subscription model, whilst others will be working under the schema being promoted by Plan S. It is unthinkable for APCs to be capped whilst subscription charges increase. 
• Learned Societies, who derive income from sales of their journals, will be particularly challenged.
• Plan S notes that the move to OA monographs may take longer than 1 January 2020. It should be noted that some University Presses in LERU universities are already producing OA research monographs, with tremendous results.
• The timescale envisaged for these ambitious changes is 1 January 2020. All parties need to act now if this timetable is to be met.

Plan S requires all universities and researchers to comply with new funding requirements; sets the onus on publishers to change their business models in favour of immediate OA; caps APC payments and requires offsetting arrangements to ease the transition to full OA; and requires all this by 1 January 2020. Plan S has the potential to be a game changer in the move to full and immediate OA. It presents real challenges in terms of implementation and all stakeholders need to work together to make it a reality. LERU is ready to make its contribution.

Download

• Plan S
• cOAlition S - Preamble
• cOAlition S - National Funders

More information available at the Science Europe website.

Contact

Policy enquiries
Prof. Kurt Deketelaere, Secretary-General: +32 499 80 89 99 / 
Dr Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost (UCL Library Services) and Chair of the LERU INFO community: +44 20 7679 7834 / 
Media enquiries
Bart Valkenaers, Policy Officer: +32 498 08 43 49 /