UK researchers remain concerned about Plan S timeline

Academics in the UK have expressed concern about the timeline for enforcing the controversial open-access initiative Plan S, despite funders agreeing to delay its implementation by a year.

Coalition S, the group of funders backing Plan S who aim to make all publications from the research they support openly available immediately and under a permissive licence, published revised implementation guidance for the initiative on 31 May.

Among many other changes, they announced that the new rules will only apply to publications resulting from research funded under calls launched from 1 January 2021—one year later than previously envisaged. Funders will also focus more on transparency in publisher pricing and will issue specific guidance for books and monographs.