The Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) has committed its full portfolio of more than 60 hybrid journals, which offer both open access and subscription-only content, to become Plan S-aligned transformative journals. This development represents a major step in ACS’ long-standing commitment to open science, signaling a future in which all publications are open access (OA), and ensuring that more authors can continue to publish in their chosen journal.
Plan S is the OA publishing strategy of cOAlition S, a group of research funders from around the globe. Researchers funded by a Plan S-aligned funder are required to publish their research OA under a copyright license allowing for liberal reuse and in a completely OA journal or, until the end of 2024, in a hybrid journal with transformative journal status. Transformative journals must achieve an absolute growth in open access articles of 5% per year, or a relative growth of 15% year-on-year (whichever is more challenging for the journal) to maintain this status.
ACS publishes 12 gold open access journals, which are all compliant with Plan S requirements. The commitment for the rest of its portfolio to become transformative journals will allow authors even greater flexibility in their choice of publication outlet.
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