To meet the ‘Plan S’ open-access mandate, journals mull setting papers free at publication

Some publishers fear they wouldn't earn enough through author fees to remain financially viable. So, according to John Sack, founding director of HighWire in Los Gatos, California, which provides web hosting for nonprofit scientific publishers, many have warmed to another compliance option: "green" open access. In that model—permitted in the draft version of Plan S, unveiled in September 2018—Plan S–funded authors could deposit free-to-read papers in public repositories without a waiting period. The journal would continue to collect subscription fees, and the mechanism could benefit some authors who lack funding to pay for gold open access.

In recent months, HighWire surveyed 27 nonprofit publishers and found that they rated green open access without an embargo period more favorably than other options, including switching their subscription-based journals to entirely gold open access.