cOAlition S is losing and important supporter as the ERC Scientific Council decides to follow its own path towards Open Access.
On 20 June, the ERC Scientific Council published a statement calling for Open Access (OA) plans to respect researchers’ needs. The statement emphasizes the ERC’s continuous commitment to implementing full and immediate OA and to the general principles underlying Plan S, an initiative for OA publishing driven by cOAlition S, an international consortium of research funders. At the same time, the Scientific Council declares that after an intensive internal debate, it has decided to follow its own path towards OA independently of cOAlition S activities and withdraw its support for the consortium. The Scientific Council argues that the challenges for young researchers and researchers from countries with limited national support with Plan S have been underestimated. It particularly criticizes the non-compliance of publication in hybrid journals, which means that publication costs for such journals are not covered by funders adhering to cOAlition S rules. Publication possibilities for researchers with fewer alternative funding sources may thus be further restricted.
The answer of cOAlition S to the statement was swift. On 21 June, the consortium took note of the ERC’s decision and clarified that the European Commission (EC), who directs the next European Research and Innovation Framework Programme, Horizon Europe, continues to support cOAlition S and Plan S. In their view, hybrid journals have failed to accelerate the transition to OA and the scarce funding allocated to Horizon Europe should not be spent on publication fees for such journals. cOAlition S points out that in fact hybrids may increase inequalities, because only researchers with generous funding can afford publication costs. Instead, they refer to OA in compliance with Plan S via the repository route and to their close collaboration with several Early Career Researchers (ECR) organisations.
The ERC Scientific Council in the meanwhile is working closely with the EC in order to ensure that OA rules for Horizon Europe can be applied across the entire programme, including the ERC.