cOAlition S Announces Releases an Independent Study on the Impact of Plan S, First Assessment of the Impact of Plan S Five Years After Its Launch

From a cOAlition S Release:

cOAlition S is pleased to announce the release of an independent, comprehensive study assessing the impact of Plan S on the scholarly communication landscape. Conducted by scidecode science consulting, following a tender process, this study provides the first assessment of the impact of Plan S five years after its launch.

Titled “Galvanising the Open Access Community: A Study on the Impact of Plan S”, the report combines quantitative analysis with qualitative insights from key stakeholders across the academic publishing ecosystem.

Key Highlights

The authors of the study highlight that Plan S has opened new avenues for achieving full and immediate Open Access, successfully placing Open Access high on policymakers’ agendas and bringing publishers to the negotiating table with institutions. The study underscores the potentially game-changing effect of the rights retention strategy, which institutions have since expanded into their own Rights Retention Policies. It also notes the contribution to the current momentum around Diamond Open Access, and the role of cOAlition S in raising awareness of the inequities of article-based charges publishing models.

The authors note that it may be too early to fully assess Plan S’s quantitative impact, as many policies only took effect in 2021 or later, and they recommend revisiting the study in 5-10 years. However, observing significant progress in the push towards full and immediate Open Access since Plan S was first announced and the influential role of the alliance of research funders, they recommend continuing cOAlition S beyond 2025. The authors also emphasize that any meaningful transition towards more sustainable, affordable and equitable publishing will require collaboration among all actors in this ecosystem.

Resources

• News Release
• Full Text Report: Galvanising the Open Access Community: A Study on the Impact of Plan S (via Zenodo)
• Report Data Files and Code (via Zenodo
• More Reports/Materials From scidecode science consulting (via Zenodo)

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Data Files, News, Open Access, Publishing, Reports