LIBER Supports New Plan to Make Open Access A Reality By 2020

Posted: 04-09-2018 Topics: Open Access Strategy

As a long-standing advocate for Open Science, LIBER fully welcomes Plan S: an ambitious new initiative from national public research funders and the European Commission to make full and immediate Open Access to research publications a reality. 

Under PlanS, all research which has been funded by a coalition of 11 national public research funders (cOAlition S) must be published in compliant Open Access Journals or on compliant Open Access Platforms from 1 January 2020. Under the plan, authors should retain the copyright of their publication, Article Processing Fees (APCs) will be capped and standardised and the ‘hybrid’ model of Open Access publishing will not be accepted.

“A key goal of LIBER’s 2018-2022 Strategy is to make Open Access the main form of publishing. PlanS clearly has the potential to make this a reality and LIBER therefore is proud to support this ambition, which puts Europe at the forefront of developments to promote and encourage Open Access,” said LIBER President Jeannette Frey.

Research libraries can support Plan S in many different ways. As outlined in LIBER’s Open Science Roadmap, libraries can:

  • Raise awareness about the new requirements and train researchers so that they can meet these standards;
  • Develop institutional repositories which meet the Plan S requirements, and encourage researchers and students to use these repositories;
  • Directly facilitate Open Access as publishers of information, rather than simply curating it for access and long-term preservation.

Many libraries are already actively working in these areas, however PlanS adds extra impetus to the need for libraries to fully back Open Access and Open Science. Notably, policies and strategies will need to be reassessed with an emphasis on transparency. LIBER is ready to help its libraries with this transition to a world where policies, tools and infrastructures universally support the growth and sharing of knowledge.

Further Information

 

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