Plan S is a global open access initiative with one target:
"“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.”
Some research at UniSA is already funded by Plan S signatories. This guide will assist applicants applying for research grants from Plan S funders from 2021 onwards. The guide includes information and tools concerning:
Plan S target and principles is supported by cOAlition S. Coalition S is made up of many organisations that fund or perform research activities. Further research funders across the world have indicated interest in Plan S.
From 2021 all UniSA research funded by cOAlition S funders will need to ensure compliance with Plan S.
International funders and supporters include: World Health Organisation, Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, Wellcome and Aligning Science Against Parkinson's (ASAP).
Open access policies may differ between the organisations however as a signatory to Plan S, the funders have all committed to the main principles of Plan S within their policies.
To be compliant you must ensure that all scholarly articles that result from research funded by members of cOAlition S are made openly available immediately upon publication without any embargo period.
There are three routes to achieve this...
Route... | Publish in... | Description |
Gold (Full Open Access) | Open Access Journals | Publish in a fully Open Access (OA) Journal where all the content of the journal is made OA at point of publication. This does not include a hybrid journal where only some of the articles have Open Access. An article processing charge (APC) may be paid by the funder. |
Green (Self-archiving) | Subscription/Hybrid Journals | Publish in a subscription/hybrid journal that allows for the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to be made openly available immediately at point of publication without embargo. You must deposit your AAM in the Research Outputs Repository. |
Transformative | Hybrid/Subscription journals with a transformative arrangement | Publish in a hybrid/subscription journal which has a transformative arrangement. A Transformative journal is committed to transition to fully Open Access in an agreed timeframe. An article processing charge (APC) may be paid by the funder whilst transitioning to fully Open Access. |
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.
cOAlition S strongly encourages the deposition of all publications in a repository, irrespective of the chosen route to compliance.
A Journal Checker Tool has been developed to assist researchers with quickly identifying if and how they can comply with a funders Plan S-aligned Open Access policy when publishing in their chosen journal.
Simply supply the name of your preferred journal, your Coalition S funder and your institution as 'University of South Australia'.
You will be provided with the appropriate routes to compliance and instructions on what to do next. If no route to compliance is available the tool will suggest how to edit the search to find a combination that enables compliance.
Please note that the Journal Checker Tool is in Beta. Contact the Library if you need any further help.
For more information about Plan S and its implementation please see the Coalition S website. You may find the pages listed below particularly helpful. Contact the Library if you require extra assistance.