cOAlition S Executive Director, Johan Rooryck, to leave cOAlition S in July 2025 | Plan S

Having led cOAlition S during a six-year period of significant growth and impact, Prof. Johan Rooryck will leave cOAlition S as Executive Director on 3rd July 2025. We are grateful for his contributions to the Plan S implementation and for his role in positioning cOAlition S as an influential voice in the Open Access landscape. He has worked with our Experts Group to build a strong foundation which supports our continued vision of a rapid, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly communication system.

Prof. Rooryck joined cOAlition S in 2019, initially as Open Access Champion, before becoming its Executive Director. Under his leadership, cOAlition S expanded its international footprint to encompass 28 research funding and performing organisations, successfully renewed attention on Open Access to research across diverse stakeholders, and championed the principle that authors should retain the rights to their publications.

As a strong advocate of Open Access, Prof. Rooryck helped cOAlition S become an influential force within the scholarly publishing ecosystem, enabling the coalition to effectively respond to and shape critical developments related to the Plan S principles. His work was instrumental in advancing Diamond Open Access initiatives, notably through his contributions to the major EU-funded projects DIAMAS, CRAFT-OA, PALOMERA and ALMASI. Prof. Rooryck played an important role in developing the Action Plan for Diamond Open Access, and in creating the European Diamond Capacity Hub (EDCH), which he co-coordinates. He also contributed to establishing the Global Diamond OA Framework, supported by UNESCO, and served as co-chair of the CoARA Working Group on Recognizing and Rewarding Peer Review.

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