Grants Resource Center, By Richard Wellons 

As reported in the American Institute of Physics’ FYI Bulletin, the national research funding agencies from 11 European countries plan to require grantees to publish their results in open access journals, beginning in 2020. This initiative, called Plan S, will block grantees from publishing their results in thousands of journals unless these outlets change their open access policies.

According to the article, Plan S has support from the European Commission and European Research Council, though some research organizations have yet to sign on and have expressed concerns or partial support. While welcoming the coordinated effort to address open access, the German Research Foundation expressed concerns that Plan S could increase article processing charges and require changes to the current way researchers build their reputations and have their work recognized and rewarded. The Swiss National Science Foundation expressed support for the effort but did not sign, deciding to stick with its own recently released policy, which allows grantees to publish articles in subscription-based journals and then make them available through open access.

Journal publishers have also shared their concerns. According to the FYI Bulletin, “Nature’s publisher told ScienceInsider the plan ‘potentially undermines the whole research publishing system.’ The American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes Science, told Nature the plan ‘will not support high-quality peer-review, research publication and dissemination.’” For more information, read the full article here.