November 28, 2018

launch of the public consultation on Plan S

On 4 September 2018, cOAlition S, a group of national and European Research Funders announced Plan S, an initiative to accelerate the transition to full and immediate Open Access to research publications.

cOAltion S has grown to include 13 national public funders, including UK Research and Innovation, the European Commission and the European Research Council, and most recently large charitable foundations including Wellcome and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Plan S principles have been met with strong support as a bold and brave step to unlock knowledge, and reactions have included a lot of helpful suggestions. There has also has been some debate in the research community, an Open Letter expressing concerns and a number of responses to these concerns have been widely discussed in recent weeks.

cOAlition S has now developed further guidance in order to shed light on how Plan S will be implement and will now launch a public consultation to gather feedback from the wider scientific community in a structured way.

The architects of the plan and leaders of the implementation task force came to the SMC to discuss their objectives, present the public consultation, and answer other questions on Plan S with journalists.

Speakers:

Marc Schiltz, President of Science Europe and Secretary General of the Luxembourg National Research Fund

Robert-Jan Smits, Open Access Envoy of the European Commission

John-Arne Røttingen, Chief Executive of the Research Council of Norway

David Sweeney, Executive Chair of Research England