the Association of Learned Professional & Society Publishers (ALPSP), Wellcome and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) have appointed Information Power to explore potential strategies and business models learned societies can adopt under Plan S – Society Publishers Accelerating Open Access and Plan S. The final report and toolkit will be launched at the next ALPSP Conference to be held in September 2019. Alicia Wise and Lorraine Estelle discuss some of the initial findings and provide an update from the first phase of the SPA-OPS project.

A group of like-minded individuals from libraries, academic institutions, publishers, and consortia have organized to provide support and advocacy for Learned and Professional Societies called  ‘Transitioning Society Publications to Open Access (TSPOA)’. Through consultations, advocacy, and information sharing, this group aims to connect society journal editors and publishers with useful resources related to transitioning society publications to OA.

In the Indian context, Open Access to science has been facilitated by government-funded repositories of student and doctoral theses, and many Indian society journals are published with platinum OA. Indian journals are increasingly available on OA platforms. However, OA in India faces numerous challenges, notably predatory OA journals and the paucity of funds. There is a need to increase awareness amongst Indian academics regarding best publication practices, and how to avoid falling prey to poor quality OA journals.

Plan S will be a focal point for Europe’s research libraries in the coming months as systems and working routines are adjusted to meet the plan’s requirements. LIBER appreciates the latest guidance, which matches LIBER’s strategic goal of making Open Access the main form of scholarly communication by 2020. At the same time, LIBER’ Open Access Working Group recognises the complexities and challenges faced by research libraries to implement publishing or update services to follow Plan S.

LA Referencia gives visibility to the scientific production of higher education and research institutions in Latin America, promotes open and free access to full text, with a special emphasis on publicly financed results. The Open Repositories conference aimed to address discussions on how repositories can support, interact and improve the experience of their recipients. Within this framework, Lautaro Matas, LA Referencia, and Washington Carvalho Segundo, IBICT (Brazilian Institute of Science and Technology Information), presented the improvement of LA Referencia metadata by linking research profiles with repositories. The presentation is now available for download.
[Article in Spanish]

Researchers applauded Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)’s new selection criteria that removed many existing journals from its index because they are ‘Not Adhering to Best Practice’. However, many of these journals have acceptable scholarly quality. The present study compares such removed journals to a trustworthy bibliometric database, SCImago Journal & Country Rank (the Scopus Database). It finds many overlaps. Some of the overlapping journals have a high score in the SCImago ranks. This paper calls for a more transparent process of journal reviews by DOAJ or even a re‐examination of the selection criteria and/or the evaluation process.

Since its launch in September 2018, Plan S has reinvigorated the global debate on Open Access to scholarly publications. The 600 plus inputs received allowed the coalition to make changes that take into consideration the views expressed by the diverse communities affected. Changes include an extension to the formal commencement point for Plan S which will now take effect from 1 January 2021. This new timetable provides more opportunity for researchers, institutions, publishers, and repositories to make changes and for funders’ policies to develop and take effect. The Plan S principles now also reflect a commitment made by the funders to revise methods of research assessment along the lines of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).

Applications of publishers to OASPA have been rapidly increasing, in particular from publishers issuing single journals. Given the overlap in the screening criteria between DOAJ and OASPA, and that DOAJ is primarily an index of reputable open-access journals, OASPA has agreed with the DOAJ that, with immediate effect, all single journals that apply to OASPA will now be referred to the DOAJ if the journal is not already listed in DOAJ. Once approved by the DOAJ, applicants that still wish to be part of OASPA should get back in touch with the organisation.

Spain is very active in the open access movement. Although the gold route has scarcely been used there, the green route has been intensively implemented through fulfilment of European and national mandates and the development of institutional policies. Plan S is becoming a disruptive element in the context of scientific communication. The challenges and opportunities are examined to conclude that repositories can be a fundamental tool for monitoring the fulfillment of mandates.

A contract is a transformative agreement if it seeks to shift the contracted payment from a library or group of libraries to a publisher away from subscription-based reading and towards open access publishing. Transformative agreements are increasingly described as either Read-and-Publish or Publish-and-Read. Learn more in this essay which is a basic primer on transformative agreements and their characteristics and components.