Plan S

This rather sinister sounding initiative is all to do with increasing the availability of European (and potentially other regions’) research by requiring it to be published in fully Open Access journals. Plan S has been devised by cOAlition S. Rather than being part of a James Bond film, cOAlition S is a group of 12 (at the time of writing) European research funders.

Open Access: the way to go

A report* just published by the Universities UK Open Access Coordination Group has come up with some interesting findings.

Open Access—beware the sharks

I am firmly convinced that the Open Access model is the future of scientific (and academic) publishing. It is inherently more efficient, as well as having the obvious benefit of greater exposure for research published under this model. However, there are risks; one of which is the flood of new journals that have the sole aim of making money without consideration of publishing standards.