RSP - OA

Introduction to Plan S

First launched in September 2018, Plan S is a new open access framework which has been signed up to by several major research funders who comprise Coalition-S. 

The overarching goals of Plan S are to:

• End embargo periods which delay research publications being made available open access by requiring immediate open access upon publication. This can take place via the Gold or Green routes to open access. The version released open access should be published under an open license, ideally a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence.
• Have publishers of subscription journals commit to transformative agreements which would see their business model 'flipping' from subscription access to open access over a period of time up to the end of 2024.
• Support authors retaining additional rights over how they can share their research, by allowing the accepted manuscript to be shared immediately at point of publication under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence.
• Signatory funders commit to assess research based on the intrinsic merit of the work and not based on the publication channel, its impact factor (or other journal metrics), or the publisher. 

The 10 Principles of Plan S are available to read online.

There is also a Plan S FAQ page which is updated on an ongoing basis.

Funder signatories

Signatories that are major funders of research conducted in the UK include:

• UKRI (who oversee the UK Research Councils) 
• Wellcome Trust
• European Commission
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• World Health Organization

In addition there are numerous national research funders. The situation is dynamic, with new funders invited to sign up. For a complete list please check the Coalition-S website. 

An overview of the implementation timetables of different cOAlition S members is available through their website.

Routes to compliance

If you are a researcher funded by a Coalition-S signatory funder, there are three broad ways to comply with the Plan S open access requirements:

i) Publish in a fully Open Access journal under a CC BY licence (may necessitate payment of an Article Processing Charge)

ii) Publish in a journal subject to an approved transformative agreement under a CC BY licence. Please see the section below for more information in relation to this.

iii) Comply via the Green route by archiving the accepted manuscript to Pure, or other nominated repository, under a CC BY licence with no embargo (please see information on the Plan S rights retention strategy below for more on how this may work)

Please note that each Coalition-S member will develop their own local open access policy which connect to the overarching goals of Plan S, and there may be subtle differences between them. Please see individual funder information from the tabs in this guide, or contact us directly for further information.

A quick note on transformative agreements

Plan S supports three strategies in this area:

1) Transformative Agreements - these consist of contractual agreements between publishers and library consortia (e.g. JISC in the UK context) whereby subscription costs are reallocated to support costs of open access publishing. Such agreements are also known as 'Read & Publish' deals. Under this model subscription costs are to be phased out by the end of 2024 but Universities who are parties to such agreements continue to make payments to support publication costs. Plan S calls for such agreements to comply with ESAC Guidelines.

2) Transformative Model Agreements - these involve smaller publishers, such as Society Publishers, but otherwise follow similar principles to Transformative Agreements with libraries continuing to pay a subscription charge to the journal / publisher and in exchange authors from their University are able to publish with the journal in a compliant open access fashion without additional payment needing to be made.

3) Transformative Journals - where a journal commits to incrementally increasing the proportion of open access articles published year on year, with a corresponding decrease in subscription costs. The journal commits to fully 'flipping' to become an open access journal once 75% of its content is being published open access.

Rights Retention Strategy 

To help authors comply via the 'Green route' cOAlition S has developed a rights retention strategy aimed at ensuring authors retain the right to license their accepted manuscripts under a CC-BY / Creative Commons Attribution licence.

In principle the Rights Retention Strategy route should allow authors to publish in 'subscription' and 'hybrid' access journals whilst adhering to the Plan S funder policies of providing immediate Open Access to the author accepted manuscript version under the appropriate CC BY licence terms. cOAlition S have communicated this approach to publishers, and the great majority have not indicated that they would decline papers subject to the Rights Retention Strategy requirements, however it is necessary to make journals aware at the point of submission where this funder obligation applies.

There are two strategies in place in this area:

• Some funders will implement a 'prior licence' to all future accepted manuscripts which stem from their funding. This then takes precedence over any subsequent license agreements.
• Other funders will impose a 'prior obligation' on their grantees to license accepted manuscripts under the terms of the CC-BY licence.

What happens next?

A Plan S journal compliance checker tool has been launched. Researchers are asked to input their institution, funder and journal they wish to publish in, a result will then be returned indicating the open access compliance routes available to the author. If the information is in any way unclear then we would ask authors to contact us at: oa.lib@coventry.ac.uk and we will aim to provide further guidance.

From July 2022 open access journals which charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) will be required to provide transparent pricing as to how their APC costs are arrived at and what services are being provided in exchange for the fee.

There is also the prospect in the future of the remit of Plan S being expanded to cover publications such as monographs, though presently they are outside the scope of the Plan S policy.

Whilst Plan S is designed to help provide a standardised Open Access policy framework for there will be some variation in how the principles contained within Plan S are implemented and adapted by signatory funders.