Cautious responses to government’s open access plans

Universities and learned societies have made a guarded response to the government’s proposals for implementing the recommendations of the Finch report on widening access to the results of publicly funded research.

Although most welcomed progress towards an open access system for academic publishing, there are concerns over the lack of funding on offer for the gold open access model—through which the costs of publishing open access are met by the author or their funder—and warnings over the need for a careful transition phase.