08/04/2020
cOAlition S endorses several strategies to encourage subscription publishers to transition to full and immediate Open Access (OA), with a business model where fees are levied for providing publishing services rather than subscription fees for reading. Under this model all published research articles can be freely accessed, read and built upon.
Referred to as “Transformative Arrangements” these approaches include Transformative Agreements (typically Read & Publish or Publish & Read agreements), Transformative Model Agreements and Transformative Journals. In this framework, cOAlition S defines a Transformative Journal as “a subscription/hybrid journal that is committed to transitioning to a fully (OA) journal. In addition, a Transformative Journal must gradually increase the share of Open Access content and offset subscription income from payments for publishing services (to avoid double payments)”.
Following a review of the responses to a public consultation, and cognisant of the ambition to provide researchers funded by a member of cOAlition S with the opportunity to continue publishing results in a wide variety of journals, whilst ensuring that the version of record is fully Open Access, we have made several changes and simplifications to the way we define a Transformative Journal. Specifically, we have:
Other criteria which a Transformative Journal must adhere to include:
Prof. John-Arne Røttingen, Chief Executive of the Research Council of Norway (RCN) and co-chair of the cOAlition S Implementation Task Force commented: “We believe Transformative Journals, along with other Transformative Arrangements, provide a means by which subscription publishers can develop Open Access models which adhere to the requirements of Plan S, in a cost-neutral, sustainable way. We hope that subscription publishers will consider using this model”.
Publishers who wish to develop a Plan S compliant Transformative Journal should complete the form at https://www.coalition-s.org/tj-forms
Notes to Editors
Plan S is an initiative for Open Access publishing that was launched in September 2018. The plan is supported by cOAlition S, a group of national research funding organisations and charitable foundations. Plan S requires that, with effect from 2021, all scholarly publications on the results from research funded by public or private grants provided by national, regional, and international research councils and funding bodies, must be published in Open Access Journals, on Open Access Platforms, or made immediately available through Open Access Repositories without embargo.
For more information
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