FAQ - About cOAlition S and Plan S

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 30/09/2020

cOAlition S is an international consortium of research funding and performing organisations who are committed to making full and immediate Open Access to research publications a reality. cOAlition S has developed Plan S whereby research funders will mandate that access to research publications that are generated through research grants that they allocate, must be free to access on the day of publication. In addition, the right to reuse the article is subject to a special type of open licence (usually the Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC-BY)) that grants the reader the right to reuse all or parts of it without having to seek additional permission, subject to appropriate attribution of the original source. See cOAlition S website. For one definition of open access see the Berlin Declaration at openaccess.mpg.de/Berlin-Declaration

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 22/06/2020

The chain, whereby new discoveries are built on previously established results, can only work optimally if all research results are made openly available to the scientific community. Plan S is a set of principles that ensure open and immediate access to funded research publications. It was first launched by cOAlition S in 2018. All funders who join cOAlition S commit to aligning their OA policies with Plan S.

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 22/06/2020

If you are a research funder interested in joining cOAlition S, please contact cOAlition S using the Contact form

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 22/06/2020

If you are an organisation, group or individual interested in publicly endorsing Plan S, please contact cOAlition S using the Contact form

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 02/06/2020

The individual funders who comprise cOAlition S are able to adopt individual details within their OA policies (e.g. whether or not to contribute financially to open access publishing under transformative arrangements; possible approval of the use of the CC-BY-ND license for individual articles). However, as a signatory to Plan S, the funders have all committed to the main principles of Plan S that they will adopt within their policies.

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 02/02/2022

The scope of Plan S is primary peer reviewed research across all disciplines, including the natural and applied sciences (STEM), social sciences, and the arts and humanities. Plan S applies to all peer-reviewed publications that are based on results from research funded fully or partially by cOAlition S members. The current guidance specifies the principles of Plan S and provides paths for their implementation regarding scholarly articles. In Sept 2021 cOAlition S issued a statement on Open Access for academic books.

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 02/06/2020

cOAlition S consults with all major stakeholders within scholarly dissemination. This includes, but not limited to: researchers at all stages of their careers, universities and university associations, libraries, and publishers. cOAlition S is particularly grateful for the input of ECRs’ (early career researchers’) organisations.

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 22/06/2020

First check if the answer to your question is included in these FAQs. If not, you can contact cOAlition S using the Contact form

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 22/06/2020

cOAlition S welcomes approaches from other research funding bodies (public and charitable research funders) interested in joining the coalition. There are numerous discussions underway with research funders across the globe who have indicated interest in the Plan S approach. Funders wishing to discuss joining cOAlition S or requiring more information about implementing Plan S should contact cOAlition S using the Contact form

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 22/06/2020

There are 3 ways to making publications OA that allow compliance with Plan S: i) open access publishing venues (article made OA by the publisher in the journal or platform at the point of publication); ii) subscription venues and repository (authors publish in a subscription journal and make either the final published version or the Author’s Accepted Manuscript openly available in a repository); and iii) subscription venues under transformative arrangements (authors publish Open Access in a subscription journal under a transformative arrangement). For any chosen route, the publication must be openly available immediately with a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY) unless an exception to this license has been agreed by the funder. For full details see Guidance on the Implementation of Plan S.

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 22/06/2020

Plan S was launched in November 2018. The guidelines were amended in 2019 in response to feedback to a public consultation to which there were over 600 submissions. The rationale for the changes and the responses are available on the cOAlition S website.

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 22/06/2020

No. Although cOAlition S funders will pay reasonable APCs for articles in fully OA journals and may decide to cover APCs in journals with transformative arrangements, other OA options are equally valid for Plan S compliance. This includes articles published OA in non-commercial or ‘diamond’ OA journals, or by making the accepted manuscript or the published version immediately OA in a repository. For details see Guidance on the Implementation of Plan S and information on non-commercial models.

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 02/06/2020

Yes. See Guidance on the Implementation of Plan S. Furthermore, cOAlition S strongly encourages the deposition of all publications in a repository, irrespective of the chosen route to compliance, to support digital preservation and to maximise discovery of publications. Several cOAlition S members require deposition of all attributed research articles in a repository.

Published on: 19/05/2020 - Updated on: 23/06/2020

cOAlition S priority is to make research immediately open access at the point of publication under open licenses. There are 3 equally valid routes to achieving this (see the question: What are the three open access options permitted by cOAlition S?)