Joint Statement on Open Access for Researchers via Plan S

"Plan S calls for all scientific publications on the results of research funded by national and European research councils and funding bodies to be published in compliant Open Access journals or on compliant Open Access platforms by 01 January 2020. The plan was initiated by the Open Access Envoy of the European Commission and Science Europe and will be implemented by cOAlition S. The coalition currently includes 11 national funders and is supported by the European Commission and European Research Council. Plan S consists of 10 principles to be enacted by coalition members. We, representatives of early-career and senior researchers in Europe, commend cOAlition S for taking this bold and ambitious step towards Open Access and offer our support as well as comments on implementing Plan S....

(4) We agree with immediate Open Access and that there should be no embargo periods on publications. We note a lack of explicit reference to the role of ‘green’ publishing and the relation between green and ‘gold’ publishing in Plan S. We understand that the green route in Plan S refers to self-archiving a final version of a publication without an embargo period whereby the author retains copyright under an open licence. We believe that such a green route is a viable and sustainable alternative to the fee-based gold route and could play a key role in the shift to immediate Open Access. We encourage RPOs and RFOs not to focus solely on the gold route but to adopt an ‘always green optionally gold’ publishing policy. We also encourage publishers to offer a green route option for publications as per criteria in Plan S...."