About the session
Plenary session 3
Colleen Campbell, Open Access 2020 Martin Eve, Birkbeck, University of London Catherine Hill, British Ecological Society.
When launching the principles of Plan S last September, cOAlition S gave this motivation: “The subscription-based model of scientific publishing emerged at a certain point in the history of science, when research papers needed extensive typesetting, layout design, printing, and when hardcopies of journals needed to be distributed throughout the world. While moving from print to digital, the publishing process still needs services, but the distribution channels have been completely transformed. There is no valid reason to maintain any kind of subscription-based business model for scientific publishing in the digital world, where Open Access dissemination is maximising the impact, visibility, and efficiency of the whole research process.” While many stakeholders in scholarly communication welcomed the decisive move towards the realisation of full and immediate Open Access to scholarly publications by 2020, certainly not all of the 900+ feedback responses received by cOAlition S were positive. Many found the principles too restrictive, too fast. Publishers have been advised that they “may charge fair value for [services that help scientists to review, edit, disseminate, and interlink their work] in a transparent way”, but Society publishers, in particular, are concerned that a shift away from the subscription business model will inhibit their ability to fulfil their mission of the advancement of science. Researchers have been told they “must realise that they are doing a gross disservice to the institution of science if they continue to report their outcomes in publications that will be locked behind paywalls”, but some say that implementation of Plan S Principles in the current landscape will come with grave infringement of their academic freedom. And what of libraries? Has their role in the research process and scholarly communication been overlooked or empowered by Plan S? In this plenary session, key representatives from each of these stakeholder groups will share their authoritative perspectives on Plan S Implementation and its implications for research and th
