Note: Article also published at: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/new-mandate-highlights-costs-benefits-making-all-scientific-articles-free-read
From Science:
The open-access movement, which aims to speed the progress of science by making research articles immediately free to read when published, will get a boost starting this month, when Plan S—an unprecedented mandate for open access by a group of mostly European funders—begins to take effect. Among other recent advances for open access: In 2017, for the first time, the majority of new papers across all scholarly disciplines were freed from paywalls; and in 2020, most major publishers removed paywalls from articles about COVID-19. But a leading business model for open access requires institutions or authors to pay a fee to make an article free to read on publication, a model that critics call unsustainable and unfair.