How policy is reshaping open access: everything, everywhere, all at once - Research Consulting

"There’s a growing consensus from governments and funders around the world that publicly funded research should be published openly and preferably openly immediately. Where policymakers diverge is on the mechanism for achieving immediate open access (OA). That divergence is leading to a regionally fragmented publishing sector that creates a strategic problem for publishers: the funding routes they relied on are being withdrawn, and one global model no longer fits every market. In principle, none of this is new. Publishers have run differentiated regional strategies for years, but the pace and the stakes have changed. It also sits alongside other policy fronts moving just as fast, from how AI systems use and help produce scholarly content to questions of copyright and verification. Those issues deserve separate treatment; here, we’re focusing specifically on the rapidly changing policy and funding environment around open access."