cOAlition S is pleased to announce that the tender process to develop the Plan S Journal Checker Tool has been successfully completed. The tender has been awarded to Cottage Labs, a UK data services and software company with solid experience in managing open access data for academia. Cottage Labs will deliver the work in partnership with Antleaf consultancy, using the data providers Open Access Button and DOAJ.
The Journal Checker Tool will help researchers who receive funding from cOAlition S organisations to easily identify journals or platforms that enable compliance with Plan S requirements. Based on the researcher’s funder and their institution, the tool will inform them of the available routes to Plan S compliance that the journal of their choice affords. The tool is planned to be available for use by the end of 2020, in time for the implementation of Plan S on 1 January 2021. The award was made following a competitive tender process, to which cOAlition S received a total of 7 proposals.
Hannah Hope, Open Access Project Manager at the Wellcome Trust, who led the selection process, commented: “We are delighted to appoint this strong team to deliver the Journal Checker Tool. Through this partnership, we will develop an essential tool that will show researchers the many options provided by Plan S to make their peer-reviewed research articles fully and immediately available Open Access, and thus increase the impact of their work. This tool is an important step towards the success of Plan S and its contribution to better and fairer science”.
Richard Jones, who is leading the work at Cottage Labs said: “Cottage Labs have been working to support Open Access since we first formed nearly 10 years ago. Plan S represents one of the most significant steps forward in Open Access since the movement began, and we are very excited to be able to play a part in it”.
