Publishers wary of Plan S rights-retention strategy

New plan has potential to damage research community, says publishers’ association

Academic publishers have expressed concern about a rights-retention strategy launched by funders behind Plan S, who will require researchers they support to make papers openly available immediately from 2021.

The strategy will contractually oblige researchers supported by funders including national bodies in Germany, Sweden, the UK and other nations to apply a CC-BY licence to the accepted version of their articles or the version of record, or less liberal licences such as CC-BY-ND as exceptions. Announced on 15 July, it aims to stop publishers asking researchers to restrict how their articles can be used. Publishers that refuse would have to reject papers funded by Plan S, accept their terms being broken, or challenge funders in court.