Plan S, aimed at accelerating the transition to full and immediate open access to scientific publications, will be delayed by one year.
The change followed a consultation that the supporters of the Plan – autonomously named Coalition S – held this year discussing how the open access initiative should work. Despite the postponement, the new guidelines reaffirm that the publication fees will be paid by the lenders or universities rather than by the authors.
From 1 January 2021, the Coalizone S funding agencies (including the UK Research and Innovation, Science Foundation Ireland and the Research Council of Norway) will therefore require each scientist who receives one of their grants to make the reading of the papers immediately available scientific, with the possibility for interested parties to download, translate and re-use the work produced.
To date, 13 of Europe’s national funding agencies have joined the Coalition. The adherents also include two of the largest research foundations in the world, the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.