PLOS, a non-profit open-access STM publisher, has welcomed the January 24, 2022, statement from the German Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat) advocating that Open Access (OA), via a CC BY license, should become the default for scientific publications.
The statement observes that a move to Open Access entails a paradigm shift in the scientific publication system, moving the roles of publishers toward coordinators of peer review and providers of publishing services. Since its foundation in 2001, to date, PLOS has published 297,968 articles across its journals under this Open Access CC BY model and has helped pioneer the sustainability of rigorous Open Access publishing. In addition, the global publisher is also transparent about its finances every year, and has adopted the pricing transparency model, developed by the funders of the Plan S project.
PLOS, therefore, supports this statement that this shift is not just desirable, but entirely proven and sustainable, and can be executed with the desired levels of transparency.
However, in addition to its support for this Open Access vision, PLOS is adding more points to the statement to ensure it does not only focus on published Open Access Versions of Record but also accommodates the developing Open Science ecosystem.
According to PLOS, focusing on the research article Versions of Record, and spending the following three years only focused on an OA financing system, risks further embedding them as the primary and sole unit of sharing research. In considering how to reorganize the financing system to support more openness and research integrity, it will be important to look beyond OA and build in the potential to support policies and developments that will enable more efficient and transparent research-sharing, especially as that is something the Wissenschaftsrat additionally seeks.
As a publisher aligned with Wissenschaftsrat’s vision, PLOS serves a much broader role than simply the provision of publishing services and a host of the Version of Record. The most well-known example is the Open Data policy: since 2014, all PLOS journals have required authors to make all data necessary to replicate their study’s findings publicly available without restriction at the time of publication (acknowledging standard exceptions for specific legal or ethical restrictions). And, since July 2014, to date, 177,357 articles have been published with such Data Availability Statements. And, now, conversations about open data, reproducibility, and research integrity – a.k.a. Open Science – are all part of the mainstream conversation around research communication as they have been proven to be sustainable values and behaviors within that system.
Via this open data policy, but also open peer review options, protocols, open methods, preregistration, preprint facilitation, and its recent policy addressing inclusion in global research, PLOS is working towards Open Science at a scale and in ways that increase the transparency and rigor of the entire research communication system, and not just its journals. In addition, work is in progress to develop business models beyond Article Processing Charges (APCs) so that both Open Access, and Open Science outputs and behaviors, are sustainable, equitable, and workable at a global scale.
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