{"id":253,"date":"2021-02-03T16:10:35","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T16:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/research\/?p=253"},"modified":"2021-09-14T12:31:48","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T12:31:48","slug":"whats-new-in-open-access-library-guidance-on-plan-s-new-funder-policies-and-transformative-agreements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/research\/2021\/02\/03\/whats-new-in-open-access-library-guidance-on-plan-s-new-funder-policies-and-transformative-agreements\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s new in Open Access:\u00a0Library guidance on Plan S,\u00a0new\u00a0funder policies and\u00a0transformative agreements\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Guest post by Tara Healy, Open Research Specialist at University of Plymouth<\/em><\/p>\n

If\u00a0you read our previous blog,\u00a0\u201cPlan S: What is it and how might it affect me as an author publishing journals?\u201d<\/a>, you may already know a little about\u00a0Plan S<\/a>, an\u00a0initiative to reform the academic publishing system and make research freely available at the point of publication.\u00a0Following\u00a0an\u00a0extension of its formal commencement point<\/a>, Plan S officially came into force on\u00a01 January 2021<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Plan S\u00a0was launched\u00a0for consultation\u00a0in 2018\u00a0by a group called\u00a0cOAlition\u00a0S<\/a>,\u00a0an international consortium of research funding\u00a0organisations which includes UKRI, the\u00a0Wellcome\u00a0Trust, and NIHR, among others.\u00a0 Each funder has committed to incorporating the\u00a0Plan S Principles<\/a>\u00a0into their Open Access policies.<\/p>\n

The Plan S\u00a0key statement is as follows:<\/p>\n

With effect from 2021*, all scholarly publications on the results from research funded by public or private grants provided by national, regional and international research councils and funding bodies, must be published in\u202f<\/b>Open Access Journals<\/b><\/a>, on\u202f<\/b>Open Access Platforms<\/b><\/a>, or made immediately available through Open Access Repositories without embargo.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

The key principles\u00a0further state that authors or their institutions\u00a0should retain copyright to their publications, which should be published under an open license (preferably a\u00a0Creative Commons license<\/a>).\u00a0Furthermore,\u00a0cOAlition\u00a0S do not support the \u2018hybrid\u2019 model of publishing,\u00a0which is when a journal charges both subscription fees\u00a0and\u00a0payment for Open Access articles in the form of Author Processing Charges (or APCs).\u00a0The launch of\u00a0Plan S\u00a0has\u00a0therefore\u00a0encouraged many publishers to sign up to\u00a0\u2018transformative agreements\u2019 with research institutions,\u00a0so as to move away from the hybrid model of publishing. You can read more about transformative agreements below.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0full,\u00a0updated\u00a0list of Plan S principles\u00a0are available\u00a0on the\u00a0cOAlition\u00a0S website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How does\u00a0<\/b>Plan S<\/b>\u00a0affect me<\/b>\u00a0now<\/b>, and what do I need to do<\/b>?<\/b><\/p>\n

Authors should pay close attention to the Open Access policies of their funders, which will inform what\u00a0they need to do to ensure that\u00a0research supported by their funder is compliant.<\/p>\n

Of the members of\u00a0cOAlition\u00a0S, the\u00a0Wellcome\u00a0Trust<\/a>\u00a0are\u00a0the first to\u00a0have\u00a0officially updated\u00a0their OA policy\u00a0in line with Plan S principles.\u00a0Their\u00a0new policy<\/a>\u00a0applies to articles submitted from 1 January 2021, and\u00a0Wellcome\u00a0have also released guidance on\u00a0complying with their new OA policy<\/a>.\u00a0In a nutshell, the new policy states that published outputs arising from\u00a0Wellcome\u00a0Trust funding must be made freely available through PubMed Central immediately on publication, and must be published under a Creative Commons attribution license (CC-BY). This can be achieved via either the Gold or Green routes to open access, although some conditions for compliance may apply to either option.<\/p>\n

More guidance on the new\u00a0Wellcome\u00a0policy, as well as other\u00a0current\u00a0funder policies, can be found on our new\u00a0guidance on\u00a0Plan S and Funder Policies<\/a>.\u00a0This page\u00a0will be kept up-to-date as\u00a0announcements are made and new policies emerge.\u00a0At present, funders such as\u00a0UKRI<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0NIHR<\/a>\u00a0are reviewing their OA policies, and\u00a0their\u00a0current policies should continue to be followed until further notice.<\/p>\n

cOAlition\u00a0S have also designed a helpful tool called the\u00a0Journal Checker Tool<\/a>, which is currently available in\u00a0its\u00a0beta\u00a0form.\u00a0This tool\u00a0provides advice to researchers on how they can comply with their funder\u2019s Plan S-aligned Open Access policy when seeking to publish in\u00a0a\u00a0specific\u00a0journal.<\/p>\n

What is the Rights Retention Strategy?<\/b><\/p>\n

The Rights Retention Strategy was developed by\u00a0cOAlition\u00a0S to\u00a0help to\u00a0give researchers supported by\u00a0its\u00a0constituent\u00a0organisations\u00a0the freedom to publish in their journal of choice. This\u00a0can include\u00a0subscription journals\u00a0that are not part of a\u00a0\u2018transformative agreement\u2019\u00a0(see below).<\/p>\n

As\u00a0outlined above, a key principle of Plan S is that\u00a0research should be made open immediately\u00a0upon publication. This means that if open access is achieved via the Green route (i.e. the deposit of the Author Accepted Manuscript in a repository), an embargo must\u00a0not<\/b>\u00a0be applied to the AAM.<\/p>\n

The Rights Retention Strategy\u00a0therefore\u00a0stipulates that a\u00a0Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY) is applied to\u00a0the AAM\u00a0at the\u00a0point\u00a0of submission\u00a0to the publisher.\u00a0Wellcome\u00a0have already issued a\u00a0statement\u00a0to\u00a0be included in all submissions<\/a>,\u00a0in order that authors\u00a0can\u00a0assert\u00a0the right to deposit their AAM without embargo.\u00a0Where a publisher\u2019s policy would normally not allow for immediate\u00a0deposit of the AAM,\u00a0the Rights Retention Strategy can therefore enable researchers to comply with their\u00a0funder\u2019s\u00a0OA policy\u00a0without compromising on their journal of choice.<\/p>\n

More information on the Rights Retention Strategy can be found in our guidance on\u00a0Plan S and Funder Policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What are transformative agreements?<\/b><\/p>\n

A transformative agreement, also known as a “read and publish” agreement, is a contract negotiated between a specific research institution and a publisher.\u00a0It is a transformation of the business model of publication.\u00a0Under these agreements, payment for\u00a0\u2018reading\u2019 (i.e. subscription fees)\u00a0and payment for\u00a0\u2018publishing\u2019 (i.e. Open Access charges)\u00a0are\u00a0bundled into a single contract, as opposed to the publisher charging subscription fees and APCs separately. Over a number of years, this enables the shift from being subscription-based reading to open access publishing.\u00a0In the meantime, it enables members of the institution\u00a0which has\u00a0signed up for the deal\u00a0to publish\u00a0fully\u00a0open access\u00a0in qualifying journals\u00a0at no additional cost\u00a0to them.<\/p>\n

You can\u00a0read more about transformative arrangements in our guidance on\u00a0Plan S and Funder Policies<\/a>. The\u00a0Library has also created a\u00a0dedicated page for\u00a0Read & Publish agreements<\/a>\u00a0currently in place\u00a0which University of Plymouth authors can benefit from. This\u00a0will be updated as\u00a0additional deals\u00a0are negotiated\u00a0with publishers\u00a0in the coming years.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The Library will continue to monitor\u00a0communications around Plan S\u00a0and funder policies.\u00a0Please contact\u00a0openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk<\/a>\u00a0if you have any questions or require any assistance and we will be happy to\u00a0help.<\/p>\n

Some helpful guidance and tools:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n