The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) has submitted a formal response to the Call for Feedback on Guidance on the Implementation of Plan S. ALPSP encourages ALPSP Member organisations also to make their own individual responses before the deadline of February 8 (17:00 CET).
The ALPSP recognises that Plan S aims to escalate the movement of journals to a fully open access business model and are supportive of the central principles of Plan S. However, the Society believes that the scale and complexity of the proposed transition, together with the short timescale involved, could introduce unintended consequences, and would like cOAlition S to take this into consideration.
ALPSP is concerned that the short time frame set out by Plan S will not enable many of its members to transition their business models or for researchers to fully engage with any consultation process. For example, by January 2020 the results from the UKRI review will only just be available, the outcomes of which will be unclear for UK researchers until that point. Furthermore, this rapid transition will disproportionately impact smaller publishers, with limited funding and less flexibility in terms of approaches.
The Plan currently proposes transformative agreements as a mechanism to smooth the transition process. These agreements are helpful, particularly to authors who do not receive funding for research. ALPSP is requesting more clarity around the requirements for compliance for these agreements.
ALPSP supports the concept that authors retain copyright of their work. The Society would, however, advocate the retention of different licence options, the NC/ND options in addition to CC-BY. There are many fields, specifically within the humanities and social sciences, where the mode of expression of arguments is integral to the scholarly work, an aspect which should be considered when determining mandates for publication licenses.
cOAlition S has chosen not to support publication in hybrid journals for research funded from January 2020. ALPSP is concerned that Plan S will place considerable restrictions on many researchers, who may be unable to select the most appropriate outlet for their publications. Learned societies were established to foster and advance their disciplines on a global scale and there is a concern raised by many of ALPSP’s members that any rapid transition to full open access will introduce barriers that prevent many researchers – those without funding or unable to pay APCs – from publishing at all. The consequences are likely to be detrimental to global collaboration in research and will force members to make tough choices about which author bases to support.
ALPSP's membership base is extremely varied, covering a range of different regions, business models, publisher sizes and disciplines, and this is reflective of the global publishing landscape. Therefore, any "one-size fits all" approach to open access is unlikely to accelerate the transition on a global scale. Many of the Society's members are concerned about the suggestions of capped article processing charges (APCs) because the running costs associated with each of their journals are equally varied. The Society therefore welcomes the joint project between ALPSP, Wellcome Trust and UKRI to explore how society journals can be sustainable under Plan S. However, the results of this initiative won't be available until August 2019, just four months before the proposed introduction of Plan S.
ALPSP welcomes the opportunity for stakeholders to give feedback on Plan S and encourages supporting funders to further engage with all publishers and learned societies, given the critical importance of publishing programmes to the vitality of their disciplines and communities. The ability of learned societies to facilitate the development of national and international networks, provide education and training, enable public engagement with their subjects, fund research, and advise government on all aspects of their discipline, must be considered in future funding models. The Society believes that constructive engagement with all stakeholders in the academic publishing landscape is the best route to transition to a more open future, while continuing to support a vibrant research community both within Europe and beyond. ALPSP is keen to continue to engage with funders after this consultation period to represent members and to facilitate members engaging directly.
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