Change is coming and it’s coming quickly. With the September 2018 announcement from the European Commission of ‘Plan S,’ and the looming deadline of January 2020 for many global Horizon 2020 initiatives, publishers are feeling the increasing pressure to evolve Open Access (OA) publishing models.
Plan S states that “scientific publications on the results from research funded by public grants provided by national and European research councils and funding bodies, must be published in compliant Open Access Journals or on compliant Open Access Platforms.” This directive has publishers around the globe asking themselves – where is my organization’s publishing program on the path to making the transition to OA? Are we ready to and should we respond to Plan S? How do we make this transition without jeopardizing our business?
Workflow issues causing barriers to progress
Even before the widely-publicized Plan S, librarians with Vienna University co-published a report with UKSG which highlighted that workflow issues will be a significant obstacle in the transition to OA publishing of research results. The report found many workflow issues including too many workflows, slow infrastructure, lack of flexibility, metadata gaps, and much more.
A call for unity
As publishers face mounting pressure to accelerate the transition to Open Access (OA), it can be hard to know if they’re on the right path. Between the operational overhead of managing traditional subscription businesses and open access publishing models, experimenting with new agreement types that often require manual support or intervention, and responding to the needs of a global author base, the OA landscape is challenging to navigate.
These factors call for flexible, collaborative, data-driven business models and tools that empower publishers and all stakeholders—from funders to institutions to researchers—to make this leap in a practical, sustainable way.
Consider the road…more traveled
RightsLink® Author is the industry-leading platform that supports dozens of publishers in automating author charges and managing complex deals. It can help solve the issues you are facing including:
- Working with authors who want simplified and flexible options when choosing where and how to publish.
- The network effect of dozens of publishers using one common platform offers the convenience and continuity of a superior and shared user experience for the research community.
- Complex consortia-level deals that require sophisticated agreement management.
- RightsLink Author’s OA Agreement Manager supports individual and consortia-level deals in addition to many other agreement types.
- Pressure from funding institutions to accelerate Open Access in drastic ways.
- RightsLink Author addresses nearly all the market problems outlined in the Vienna University Library report and Plan S.
Visit us at the London Book Fair 2019
Copyright Clearance Center will be at the London Book Fair on 12-14 March. Visit Stand #7C16 to discuss these topics and explore how RightsLink Author can support you as you navigate the changing OA landscape. Browse our expert panels here.