Karger Publishers is adopting the Plan S-aligned ‘Transformative Journal’ model for a growing number of journals, acting on its commitment to accelerate the transition to Open Access (OA).
Seven Karger Publishers journals have committed to the Transformative Journals model so far: Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Cardiology, Cytogenetic and Genome Research, Skin Appendage Disorders, Sexual Development, and European Addiction Research.
Transformative Journals (TJs) are hybrid journals (subscription journals that also publish OA articles) that actively foster OA and increase the number of primary research articles they publish, with the aim to ultimately become fully Gold OA journals. This is one step toward executing Karger Publishers’ “open for Open” strategy, which embraces and promotes OA and Open Science. The TJs, which publish articles under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY) license, also make it even easier for all Karger Publishers authors to meet funder mandates.
cOAlition S, the group of research funders behind the wide-ranging Plan S set of OA-related requirements, has recognized the seven journals as compliant TJs so that their authors may be eligible for coverage of OA publishing costs by their funders. All other Karger Publishers journals also comply with Plan S, but in some cases the conditions vary, and compliance may be achieved via self-archiving in an OA repository.
TJs allow authors to publish in the journals of their choice and profit from increased visibility and citations and other OA benefits. They also enable Karger Publishers to advance a sustainable transition to OA, which includes launching OA journals, “flipping” (converting) subscription journals to OA, signing innovative “Publish & Access” OA agreements with institutions, and ensuring progressive policies to support OA and Open Science practices.
Karger Publishers will report annually on the Transformative Journals’ progress in OA and recently added statistics and targets for publishing papers with a CC BY license on its Transformative Journal web page, in accordance with Plan S.
“Helping more authors take advantage of OA is crucial to achieving a more open research culture,” says Beth Bayley, Open Science Manager at Karger Publishers. “Our range of fully OA, hybrid and Transformative Journals allows authors to choose the best venue for their papers and reap the benefits of openness. We continuously aim to improve our products and services for our customers since the needs of the health sciences community are at the center of everything we do.”
Robert Kiley, Head of Strategy at cOAlition S commented, “We welcome the commitment from Karger Publishers to transition their titles to fully Open Access and the publication of their OA targets for 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the benefits that arise from full and immediate OA. The TJ model provides a mechanism by which publishers can transition their business model and ensure that the research they publish is made fully open and reusable.”
The Author’s Choice OA publishing fee for Karger Publishers TJs is reduced and includes unlimited pages, color illustrations and all other services for both online and print publication. To make the process easy and efficient, authors are prompted to select Author’s Choice early in the submission process and indicate any funding or institutional OA agreements.
Gold and hybrid OA articles are permanently free for anyone to read and share upon publication. Costs associated with publishing are generally covered by an Article Processing Charge (APC), which is a fee levied per article and paid by a funder, research institution, or author. Karger Publishers additionally facilitates Green OA (whereby papers are ‘self-archived’ and made free to read in an institutional or other repository). Karger Publishers applies the Creative Commons Open Access license version required by authors’ funders or institutions.
