Most transformative journals miss Plan S target | Times Higher Education (THE)

"Less than half of transformative journals are on course to make their transition to open-access publishing under the Plan S agreement, according to new analysis that has revealed the slow progress towards free-to-read research at many leading publishers.

In an update on the first year of Plan S, the European-led Coalition S group revealed that 56 per cent of the 2,240 academic titles deemed “transformative journals” by the project failed to meet their targets for 2021.

That would have required them to demonstrate an annual increase in the proportion of open access research content of at least 5 percentage points in absolute terms and at least 15 per cent in relative terms, year-on-year, under the Plan S scheme that came into effect at the start of 2021.

Those titles that did not meet their first-year target can only remain in the scheme if they hit their 2022 targets, which must be recalculated as if the Year 1 target had been achieved.

Any title that misses its 2022 open access target will be removed from the programme, which requires journal papers to be made free at the point of publication if their authors are supported by any of the 17 funding agencies and six foundations now signed up to Plan S...."