New proposals to transform academic publishing put forward by the Coalition S coalition of research funders are bold but might ultimately prove ineffective, according to observers.
Under the original plan for what was known as Plan S, which was launched in January 2021, all papers that were supported by participating European funders had to be made freely available to read at the point of publication.
While the initiative has had a significant impact, signing up 21 national funders globally, some open-access advocates have been frustrated by its failure to significantly erode the dominant position of big academic publishers within research and the high article-processing charges levied by some prestigious journals in lieu of subscription fees.
In a new set of proposals, Coalition S says it should be authors, not publishers, who decide when and what to publish – on the understanding that outputs should be shared immediately and openly, at no cost to researchers.
