cOAlition S has reaffirmed its commitment to improving the copyright framework for research. The international consortium, which aims to make scholarly publishing more open and accessible, has been at the forefront of the open access movement since its inception. One of the key tenets of its Plan S initiative is that authors or their institutions should retain copyright to their work.
The Rights Retention Strategy aims to ensure that authors retain their rights and comply with funders' mandates of immediate open access under open licenses while publishing in the venue of their choice. This approach has been widely adopted by research funders and institutions around the world.
In addition to promoting rights retention strategies, cOAlition S is also supportive of efforts to improve copyright legislation for research. This includes the introduction of Secondary Publication Rights in national copyright legislation, which would allow authors to make their work openly available after an embargo period has elapsed. The European Research Area policy work is also identifying barriers to access and reuse of scientific publications in EU copyright legislation and proposing legislative and non-legislative measures to address these challenges.
cOAlition S is also exploring the possibility of an EU Secondary Publication Right, which would create a legal framework for authors to make their work openly available after a period of time. This would be a major step towards sustainable universal open access on an international scale. The consortium has also suggested a number of other measures to improve the copyright framework for research, including mandatory clauses for scientific publishing agreements via contract law, mandatory reversion rights, EU harmonization of first ownership, and mandatory and stronger exceptions and limitations for research.
The cOAlition S announcement has been welcomed by many in the research community, who see it as a positive step towards greater openness and transparency in scholarly publishing. By supporting rights retention strategies and advocating for improvements to the copyright framework for research, cOAlition S is helping to create a more equitable and accessible scholarly publishing landscape.
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