The first Plan S has led to a big increase in Open Access published papers, but also to changing business models for publishers. This led to rising APCs with many unintended consequences. Now the new Plan S aims to change the scholarly publication system again.
cOAlition S, of which NWO is a member, asks for your input. Please fill out the survey, open until 22 April 2024.
Full proposal (8 short pages).pdf
Survey (open until 22 April 2024) Please note: at the end of the survey there is a free-text field for points that were insufficiently addressed.
Our concerns with the proposal:
- Plan S envisions a future where all academic works are published in the pre-print stage, peer review is open (including review of the pre-prints), and included in evaluations of researchers. This will incentivise quantity over quality and create an enormous amount of extra work, when there already is a shortage of peer reviewers.
- The plan does not address ownership: commercial parties may provide the platforms and tools for all the added work. If a commercial party links their pricing to the use of their platform, they have a significant incentive to stimulate more pre-prints and more peer reviews. Some of those articles would be rejected in the current system, meaning even more pollution of the literature than we already have.
- The position on ownership of platforms is not in line with the directive of the Council of the European Union and UNESCO which state that research infrastructure should be publicly owned, not-for-profit.
- The intended system is called 'scholar-led', but Plan S presents a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach. In some fields pre-prints and open peer review may work well, in others they may not, as we have seen during Covid. There should be space for scholars to decide which system works best in their field.
- Small publishers like scientific societies, both commercial and non-profit, may be strongly disadvantaged while the largest publishers may consolidate power, since they have the resources to set up new platforms and negotiate big deals.
Opinion pieces:
Ask The Chefs: cOAlition S’s “Towards Responsible Publishing” - The Scholarly Kitchen, Nov 16 2023
Society publishers respond to Plan S - The Scholarly Kitchen, Jan 17 2024
Coalition S: Towards (ir)responsible publishing? - Jelle de Plaa (SRON), Feb 16 2024
Questions? Please contact Vera.Sarkol@cwi.nl
