Nine months into the open-access initiative, funders are happy but researcher concerns remain
It’s still early days for the controversial initiative Plan S and its push to make much more research open access, but Robert Kiley feels positive about its first nine months. “Certainly, the sky hasn’t fallen in—researchers are still publishing in a variety of journals, and publishers are still publishing this research,” says the head of strategy for the participating funders known collectively as Coalition S.
But others are not so sure. Since Plan S kicked into action for two dozen funders on 1 January, some publishers remain worried that the strict rules on where researchers can publish will squeeze their income, and researchers have continued to raise concerns around how they should meet its requirements.