European research funding bodies back plan for stricter open access requirements by 2020

In September, a group formed by 12 European research funding bodies (including the NWO), launched a new plan – Plan S – aimed at accelerating the transition to full open access by 2020. The initiative is supported by the European Commission and the European Research Council.

Plan S stipulates that from 1 January 2020, all scientific publications supported by the participating funding bodies must be published in open access journals – known as the ‘gold route’. The key objective is to encourage publishers to ‘flip’ their business model from subscription-based to gold open access.

One of the key innovations introduced by Plan S is that publication in hybrid journals – i.e. subscription journals with an open access option – will no longer comply. Currently, publication in hybrid journals satisfies most funders’ open access requirements; in fact, it is encouraged in the Netherlands as a result of agreements known as ‘big deals’ that were made between the VSNU and major academic publishers. The funding bodies will allow this ‘hybrid model’ to continue for a transitional period until December 2021.