Royal Historical Society takes aim at Plan S

Learned society warns the open access initiative ‘impoverishes the landscape of scholarly communication’

The UK’s learned society for historians has joined the fray over Plan S, with a strongly worded warning that the open access initiative “impoverishes the landscape of scholarly communication”.

The Royal Historical Society’s position paper, published on 23 October, comes amid increasing focus on how societies and researchers outside of STEM fields will be affected by Plan S. Funders backing the controversial scheme—including UK Research and Innovation—will require the researchers they support to make their work openly available immediately from 2021.