A platform for ideas to make full and immediate Open Access a reality
The sOApbox is the official blog of cOAlition S featuring opinions, interviews and how-tos on the path towards the implementation of Plan S and aligned initiatives. It aims to inform and inspire both the research and publishing world on the necessity of full and immediate Open Access and to pave the way towards achieving this.
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors. The blog is moderated by the cOAlition S office and is open to contributions in line with the mission of Plan S and cOAlition S. Johan Rooryck, Executive Director of cOAlition S, acts as its editor-in-chief.
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How the Web of Science takes a step back
The Web of Science, a major commercial indexing service of scientific journals operated by Clarivate, recently decided to remove eLife from its {...}
Opinions
28.11.2024
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Peer-reviewed preprints and the Publish-Review-Curate model
The traditional scientific publication model, characterized by gate-keeping editorial decisions, has come under increasing criticism. Opponents {...}
Opinions
28.10.2024
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Reflections on Diamond Open Access and cOAlition S
International Open Access week and this year's theme “Community over Commercialization” provide me with an excellent opportunity to reflect on {...}
Opinions
25.10.2024
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Maximizing participation in scholarly communication through equitable pricing
Academic knowledge shouldn't be hindered by economic disparities. However, many researchers today, particularly in developing countries, face {...}
Opinions
24.10.2024
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Advancing equity in Open Science: PLOS and the “How Equitable Is It” framework
In 2023, PLOS was delighted to partner with cOAlition S and Jisc to establish a multi-stakeholder working group. Its goal was to identify {...}
Opinions
23.10.2024
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Critique of “Open excess: remove open access burden from REF”
Patrick Grant, Tanita Casci & Stephen Conway, University of Oxford. “Open excess: remove open access burden from REF.” 11 June {...}
Opinions
01.07.2024
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Transformative Journals: analysis from the 2023 reports
Introduction The Transformative Journal (TJ) model was one of the strategies cOAlition S developed to help subscription publishers {...}
Policies
28.06.2024
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A critique of the Emerald Statement relating to UK rights retention strategies
Emerald should be applauded for adopting a policy since 2014 that states authors may make their accepted manuscript (AAM) freely available at the {...}
Opinions
14.02.2024
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Are open bibliometric data sources better than proprietary ones?
With the advancement of open science, the reliability of open bibliometric data providers compared with proprietary providers is becoming a topic of {...}
Opinions
25.01.2024
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Journal Comparison Service: analysis of the 2022 data
The Journal Comparison Service has been developed by cOAlition S to shed light on publishing fees and services. It enables those who procure {...}
Tools
17.01.2024
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Towards a federated global community of Diamond Open Access
The following paper by Pierre Mounier (OpenEdition, OPERAS) & Johan Rooryck (cOAlition S), was originally published in Hypotheses, a platform by {...}
Opinions
11.01.2024
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Introducing the “Towards Responsible Publishing” proposal from cOAlition S
In this blog post, Bodo Stern, Chief of Strategic Initiatives at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Johan Rooryck, Executive Director of {...}
Opinions
31.10.2023
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American Chemical Society (ACS) and authors’ rights retention
In this post I shall describe how the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) new zero embargo policy perpetuates an increasingly out-of-touch and {...}
Opinions
17.10.2023
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Supporting Open Access for 20 years: Five issues that have slowed the transition to full and immediate OA
The following article by Robert Kiley, Head of Strategy at cOAlition S, was originally published in the book titled "We so loved Open Access", {...}
Opinions
27.09.2023
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Introducing new search features in the Journal Checker Tool for Transformative Agreements
The Journal Checker Tool (JCT) – a service developed by cOAlition S to help researchers identify Plan S-compliant publishing routes – has {...}
Tools
22.09.2023
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5 years Plan S: Stay the course!
In the following opinion piece, Robert-Jan Smits, Europe’s former Open Access Envoy and one of the main architects of Plan S, reflects on the five {...}
Opinions
05.09.2023
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Five years of Plan S: a journey towards full and immediate Open Access
From inception to global impact In September 2018, a group of national research funding organizations, with the support of the European {...}
Opinions
04.09.2023
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Introducing the Hybrid Open Access Dashboard (HOAD)
We, at the Göttingen State and University Library, are pleased to introduce the Hybrid Open Access Dashboard (HOAD), an openly available data {...}
Tools
17.08.2023
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Commercial publishers and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): driving change or hindering progress?
Leading up to the 2023 SDG summit in September, Nature has launched a series of editorials covering the SDGs. The first editorial raises the alarm {...}
Opinions
19.07.2023
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Diamond is for everyone
The following article by Johan Rooryck, Margo Bargheer and Pierre Mounier was originally published on ResearchProfessional News on 22 June 2023. A {...}
Opinions
04.07.2023
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Transformative Journals: analysis from the 2022 reports
Introduction The Transformative Journal (TJ) model was one of the strategies cOAlition S developed to help subscription publishers {...}
Policies
20.06.2023
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Principles of Diamond Open Access Publishing: a draft proposal
The following article by Johan Rooryck (Editor in Chief, Glossa: a journal of general linguistics) was originally published on Hypotheses. {...}
Opinions
15.05.2023
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Springer Nature doublespeak
One thing that crops up in politics is situations where politicians attempt to explain a new law they know people won't like or agree with, and do {...}
Opinions
04.05.2023
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Rights retention built into Cambridge Self-Archiving Policy
The following article by Niamh Tumelty was originally published on the "Unlocking Research" blog, which is maintained by the Office of Scholarly {...}
Opinions
03.04.2023
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T&F copyright advice. Author, beware.
The publisher Taylor and Francis (T&F) provides a webpage, ‘Understanding copyright for journal authors’, aimed at researchers authoring {...}
Opinions
09.02.2023
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N8 Research Partnership: Rights Retention means researchers have a strong hand in terms of control over their own work
In 2008 Harvard’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences voted unanimously to adopt a ground-breaking open access policy. Since then, over 70 {...}
Interviews
20.01.2023
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The University of St Andrews enables researchers to use the rights retained in their scholarly works
In 2008 Harvard’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences voted unanimously to adopt a ground-breaking open access policy. Since then, over 70 other {...}
Interviews
17.01.2023
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Open Access is dead: Long live Open Access
On 15th February 1971, the UK moved to a new decimal system of currency. The unit of currency, the penny, was retained, so the new penny had to be {...}
Opinions
05.12.2022
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Reviewing the Rights Retention Strategy – A pathway to wider Open Access?
The following article was originally published on the LSE Impact Blog on October 26, 2022 Launched in 2021 by cOAlition S (an {...}
Opinions
31.10.2022
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How the Norwegian University of Science and Technology takes legal responsibility for its authors’ copyrights by implementing rights retention
In 2008 Harvard’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences voted unanimously to adopt a ground-breaking open access policy. Since then, over 70 other {...}
Interviews
18.10.2022
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Collective action – a vital ingredient for simpler and wider Open Access
Pursuing a common aim Those involved in the creation of research outputs agree that Open Access (OA) benefits researchers, research, and society in {...}
Opinions
26.09.2022
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Open access research repositories provide diversity and innovation publishers can’t match. They have a critical role in archiving, preserving and sharing the diverse content produced by universities.
Dr Ginny Barbour, Director of Open Access Australasia, illustrates in the following article the power and potential of research {...}
Opinions
18.08.2022
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Monkeypox and open access: time to change the narrative
For the fourth time in less than seven years, the community of science and technology leaders have issued a statement calling on publishers to make {...}
Opinions
16.08.2022
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Exclusive licence to publish – now here’s a thing
Imagine this scenario. You’ve written an article and want to make it Open Access (OA). To do this, you submit it to a journal that enables gold OA, {...}
Opinions
25.07.2022
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“Rights retention is actually straightforward”. Sheffield Hallam University aims to keep it simple.
In 2008 Harvard’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences voted unanimously to adopt a ground-breaking open access policy. Since then, over 70 other {...}
Interviews
07.07.2022
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Transformative Journals: analysis of Year 1 (2021)
The Transformative Journal (TJ) model is one of the strategies cOAlition S endorses to help subscription publishers transition to full and immediate {...}
Policies
21.06.2022
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Glossa: how a journal took matters into their own hands to make research available
The following interview was originally published on the Utrecht University website. Johan Rooryck, Editor-in-Chief of the academic {...}
Interviews
15.06.2022
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Now is the time for universal benefits of the blessings of knowledge
In 2008 Harvard’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences voted unanimously to adopt a ground-breaking open access policy. Since then, over 70 other {...}
Interviews
18.05.2022
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How to make it right: a Rights Retention Pilot by the University of Cambridge ahead of shaping a full institutional policy
In 2008 Harvard’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences voted unanimously to adopt a ground-breaking open access policy. Since then, over 70 other {...}
Interviews
14.04.2022
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“Our policy is an affirmation that the University of Edinburgh fully supports authors in their open access practices”
In 2008 Harvard’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences voted unanimously to adopt a ground-breaking open access policy. Since then, over 70 other {...}
Interviews
07.04.2022
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How UiT The Arctic University of Norway protects researchers’ freedom to choose whatever publication venue they want
In 2008 Harvard’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences voted unanimously to adopt a ground-breaking open access policy. Since then, over 70 other {...}
Interviews
31.03.2022
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Peer Community in (PCI): two routes to support Plan S
Peer Community in (PCI) is a public initiative managed by researchers and organized as a set of disciplinary communities providing preprint peer {...}
Opinions
22.02.2022
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Who’s afraid of Green? Market forces and the Rights Retention Strategy
How to achieve universal open access (OA) to research outputs is the topic of sometimes heated discussion. Major publishers pronounce the superiority {...}
Opinions
13.01.2022
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Creating a market to replace publisher monopolies
Journals Replacing traditional journals with a more modern solution is not a new idea, but the lack of progress since the first calls more than 20 {...}
Opinions
11.01.2022
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Licence to publish – the boot is on the wrong foot
In law – at least UK law – copyright is automatically assigned to works created by authors. Authors do not need to apply for it or register {...}
Opinions
01.12.2021
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Warning: the creeping takeover of Open Science
“The shift in the pattern of land ownership caught us largely unawares in the last century”. Roly Smith (from notes by Henry Folkard of BMC and {...}
Opinions
10.11.2021
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Why I’m optimistic about the Open Access movement
– The following post was originally published on LinkedIn on October 25, 2021 – It’s International Open Access Week and I’m {...}
Opinions
29.10.2021
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Observing the success so far of the Rights Retention Strategy
As someone who is independent of cOAlition S, I have been monitoring with great interest the application of the Rights Retention Strategy {...}
Opinions
05.10.2021
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Elsevier Share Links: The Schrödinger’s cat of Open Access
Many publishers rightly appear keen to proclaim publicly the many benefits of open access (OA), to state how eager they are to support openness, and {...}
Opinions
21.09.2021
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We encourage you to share your article widely – but not too much
Has anyone else noticed the conflict of advice that exists in the Springer Nature (SN) SharedIt initiative? On the face of it, it appears a good {...}
Opinions
15.09.2021
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Accelerating open access to academic books
cOAlition S has just issued its statement on Open Access (OA) for academic books. With this statement, cOAlitition S sets a clear direction for {...}
Policies
07.09.2021
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Transformative Journals: an initial assessment
cOAlition S endorses several strategies to encourage subscription publishers to transition to full and immediate Open Access (OA). These approaches {...}
Policies
16.08.2021
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Navigating the barbed wire of publisher access barriers
In March 2021, Chris Banks, Library Director at Imperial College London, wrote about the importance of a rapid shift toward full and immediate open {...}
Opinions
14.07.2021
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Protecting High-Quality Scholarship through Fair Open Access: Reflections on the OA Diamond Journals Study
The OA Diamond Journals Study Report is a fantastic resource for anybody interested in open Access, and particularly for researchers and scholarly {...}
Opinions
13.05.2021
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Opportunities-in-waiting
The recently-published OA Diamond Journals Study is something I have been looking forward to reading for a long time. Looking at the results, it's {...}
Opinions
06.04.2021
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Diamond Mining
Diamond. The term is made to do a lot of work. Used in open-access publishing circles to refer to modes in which neither the author nor the reader {...}
Opinions
31.03.2021
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Reflections on the OA Diamond Journals Study
Earlier this month, cOAlition S and Science Europe published an in-depth study of diamond open access journals, so called because they charge neither {...}
Opinions
30.03.2021
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cOAlition S response to the STM statement: the Rights Retention Strategy restores long-standing academic freedoms
The statement published earlier today (3rd February) by the STM Association and signed by a number of its members (and a number of non-members), {...}
Opinions
03.02.2021
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Don’t believe the hype: repositories are critical for ensuring equity, inclusion and sustainability in the transition to open access
The rhetoric of some scholarly publishers lately has shown a troublesome trend with respect to Open Access repositories (often referred to as Green {...}
Opinions
29.01.2021
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Repositories as key links in the cOAlition S Rights Retention Strategy • cOAlition S and repositories (part III)
In the previous blogs, I covered Plan S and the requirements for repositories, and the benefits of deposit & dissemination of research findings {...}
Opinions
21.01.2021
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The many benefits of repositories • cOAlition S and repositories (part II)
In the previous blog, I examined the cOAlition S mandate for depositing copies of articles in repositories. One of the main drivers for this {...}
Opinions
12.01.2021
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cOAlition S funders’ repository requirements: unity in diversity • cOAlition S and repositories (part I)
When Plan S was launched in 2018, it gained a reputation as a Gold Open Access (OA) initiative focused on paying for Article Processing Charges {...}
Opinions
07.01.2021
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Open Access and Plan S: 5 key facts about Wellcome’s OA policy
As the chimes of Big Ben welcomed in 2021, Wellcome’s Plan S-aligned Open Access (OA) policy came into effect. This updated policy will ensure {...}
Policies
02.01.2021
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A model Open Access journal for researchers, practitioners and patients
Having worked to promote openness of research findings for some considerable time, it’s great to come across examples that illustrate why you’re {...}
Opinions
22.12.2020
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“It’s hard to explain why this is taking so long”
- The following post was originally published on the scilog – the magazine of the Austrian Science Fund FWF - Interview: Ingrid {...}
Interviews
11.12.2020
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Does the rise of immediate green Open Access undermine progress? A response from cOAlition S to the OASPA open post
- The following post was originally published on the OASPA blog available here - We thank OASPA for the opportunity to respond to the {...}
Opinions
11.12.2020
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Enabling accurate results within the Journal Checker Tool
We’ve worked hard to ensure the results given within the Journal Checker Tool (JCT) are as accurate as possible at this point. However, not all of {...}
Tools
18.11.2020
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Unboxing the Journal Checker Tool
We are delighted that the cOAlition S funded Journal Checker Tool (JCT) is released today. Although it is in open testing mode, this is a big {...}
Tools
18.11.2020
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4 things you should know about the Rights Retention Strategy and the Journal Checker Tool
Overview The Rights Retention Strategy (RRS) ensures that researchers who have been funded by a cOAlition S Organisation will always be able to {...}
Tools
18.11.2020
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Opinion: the cOAlition S Rights Retention Strategy
For a long time now, researchers have all too easily handed over to academic publishers the rights inherent in their publications. These rights {...}
Opinions
20.07.2020
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Open Access lessons during Covid-19: No lockdown for research results!
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the world as we know it, and research is no exception. Globally, scientists are working together at unprecedented {...}
Interviews
08.06.2020
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Open Access and Plan S: 5 key activities
The emerging Coronavirus (COVID19) has once again highlighted the need for researchers to have unfettered access to the research literature. A {...}
Opinions
18.02.2020
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