Help Shape the Future of Open Access Journals with Your $0.02 of Feedback

Plan S was a shot across the bow of commercial publishers when it was announced in 2018, “cOAlition S: Making Open Access a Reality by 2020.”

Many responses and adjustments have transpired, but one of the more interesting countervailing suggestions was made by the Chief Publishing Officer at Springer Nature in “A faster path to an open future.” It brought to the fore the idea of “transformative publishers” producing “transformative journals.”

“Transformative Publishing: Requirements for a new publishing standard: A proposal from Springer Nature” outlines the proposed criteria for becoming a transformative publisher, but it also raises questions. Would transformative publishing realistically result in transformative journals and will transformative publishers produce transformative journals in line with the goals of Plan S?

To get a handle on how you would answer these questions read “Addendum to the cOAlition S Guidance on the Implementation of Plan S.” Then help cOAlition S in its efforts to stimulate the migration to transformative arrangements by commenting on the proposed framework for transformative journals before 3 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (9am CET) January 6, 2020.

Springer Nature Group already made its response public in mid-December 2019, “Alternative conditions needed in order for cOAlition S’s proposal for Transformative Journals to succeed.”