Plan S Lands At Frankfurt

In a special “pop-up” program for the Frankfurt Book Fair, a trio of leading scholarly publishers shared what it takes for Open Access publishers to be smart about Plan S

An initiative of 11 European national research funding organizations announced only a month ago, “Plan S” puts pressure on Open Access publishing business models by capping article fees, ending embargoes and withdrawing support for “hybrid” OA journals.

Not only publishers but also authors are affected by Plan S’s ambitions. Researchers are concerned that under Plan S, funders can decide where they may publish their work – with adverse effect on their academic careers.

Robert-Jan Smits, the European Commission’s Open Access special envoy and mastermind of Plan S, says the “S” in “Plan S” can stand for “science, speed, solution, shock.” In a special “pop-up” program for the Frankfurt Book Fair, Copyright Clearance Center welcomed a trio of leading scholarly publishers who shared what it takes for Open Access publishers to be smart about Plan S. CCC’s Chuck Hemenway moderated the discussion.

Panelists were –

Tim Britton, Managing Director of the Open Research Group at Springer Nature. Tim is responsible for the open research portfolio across Springer Nature which includes –

• BMC, SpringerOpen, the open access journals from Nature Research;
• open access monographs from Springer and Palgrave Macmillan; and
• open data from Springer Nature

Tim Britton was previously head of strategy and transformation for PwC’s global data research and insight centre, r2i.

Malavika Legge, Acting Director of Publishing at Portland Press, the wholly-owned publishing arm of the UK’s Biochemical Society. Along with strong roots in content development and extensive licensing and commercial experience, she has a special interest in workflows and publishing technology. Previously, Malavika Legge held a variety of editorial and strategic roles at Informa PLC. She has a degree in Biochemistry and a Master’s in Bioscience.

David Ross, Executive Publisher for Open Access at SAGE Publishing, a leading independent, academic and professional publisher. Every year, SAGE publishes more than 1,000 journals and over 800 books, reference works and databases in business, humanities, social sciences, science, technology and medicine. David Ross has global responsibility for the strategic direction of Open Access in SAGE’s Journals program as well as for the development of the systems, process and policies that support SAGE’s OA publishing.