Originally shared by Eli Fennell

Science Funders From 11 European Nations Adopt Radical Open Access Plan

11 European science funding agencies, from as many nations, which collectively contribute nearly $9bn U.S. worth of research grants annually, have joined together on an ambitious Open Access Plan: ‘Plan S’.

Plan S calls for immediate, free-to-read access to research published under grant funding from any of the organizations involved, along with liberal (typically free-of-cost) licenses to download, reuse, and translate research findings. Most radically, it bans researchers from publication in about 85% of major research journals, which typically lock this research up behind paywalls.

It is no exaggeration to say that this plan spells doom for the major Subscription Journal Publishers as we know them, and they’re not happy. The decision is facing push back, of course, but the journals are rather powerless against the people who actually write the cheques. Much of this research is at least partly publicly funded, anyways, which makes the presence of paywalls all the more galling.

I, for one, say good riddance to Science paywalls! May they die swiftly and ingloriously! Science depends on the free and open exchange, review, and reuse of findings, as well as anything relevant to the findings, such as the procedures used to obtain them, the personnel and organizations involved, etc…

Research behind paywalls is research that cannot benefit the collective whole of humanity’s great Enlightenment Project known as Scientific Inquiry.

#BlindMeWithScience #PlanS #OpenAccess

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06178-7//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js