Funders and publishers want to mitigate size-related risks
Organisations representing research funders, libraries, publishers and other academic actors have joined forces to help small publishers make their content available with open access.
The group, including the funders implementing the Plan S open-access initiative, the Center for Research Libraries and the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, said on 17 June that they would work together to minimise the complexity and maximise the efficiency of the transition from subscription to open-access scholarly publishing.
It said that transformative arrangements, including ‘read and publish’ agreements, which cover both access to subscription content and publication costs for open access, provide a “scalable, sustainable and revenue-neutral way for publishers to transition” to open access, but that they pose a challenge to smaller publishers.
Smaller publishers are “highly valued by the research community”, including for the “key role they play in ensuring a diverse, open scholarly publishing landscape”, the group said. Its initiative is a response to a study commissioned by some of those involved, which recently recommended the creation of such a group.