Plan S special: One year on

The controversial open-access initiative has lit a fire under academic publishing

For more than two decades, the idea that there should be open access to research papers has been quietly brewing in academia. What began as a movement at the fringes has become central to the larger push for more openness in research. But until recently, tangible change remained hard to find.

Enter Plan S. In September 2018, a dozen European research funders launched the radical initiative to jump-start a shift in the publishing landscape by requiring the researchers they support to make their publications openly available immediately in outlets that meet specific requirements.