Academies back Plan S, but with ‘major caveats’

The European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, Allea, has welcomed the “bold ambition” of the controversial open-access initiative Plan S, but stressed the need for research evaluation to be reformed and for young researchers to be supported.

Allea said in a paper it published on 12 December that it supports open access as a way of universalising research and that it welcomes Plan S in this regard. It recognised the “frustrations” with the slow progress towards full open access, and praised the inclusion of all research fields in the scope of Plan S.

But it warned that a move to full open access will “require a fundamental re-evaluation of the responsibilities of all the different actors in the research system”, and said it would be “all too easy to introduce perverse incentives and produce unintended consequences”.