Open-Access Program Plan S Relaxes Rules

In response to concerns from the research and publishing communities, the European group pushes back the deadline for its full and immediate open-access mandate to 2021.

Written byJef Akst

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In new guidelines rolled out today (May 31), Plan S will delay the deadline for implementing its open-access rules by a year. After much discussion, the group decided that a group of funders known as cOAlition S needed more time to implement the requirement that all research supported by them be made completely open access (OA) as soon as it is published.

“2020 was considered to be too ambitious by the research community and publishers genuinely wishing to change,” Marc Schiltz, president of the Brussels-based advocacy group that officially launched Plan S, tells Nature.

When it was announced last September, Plan S was met with criticism about the practicality of implementing such a change. The draft guidelines for how it would be rolled out received about 600 responses that helped organizers revamp the plan. “[Plan S architects] have engaged in a good quality dialogue” with those ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
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Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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