cOAlition S acknowledges the Open Access Policy Refresh from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and welcomes its ongoing commitment to work in partnership with other funders to make all research articles open by default.
The Foundation’s policy refresh expands to encompass all funded manuscripts which must be made available without any embargo and openly licenced. Although individual APC payments will no longer be paid, the BMGF are committed to supporting other innovative ways to fund publication services. This approach is in line with the aspirations of the “Beyond article-based changes” multi-stakeholder group – established by cOAlition S in partnership with Jisc and PLOS –which seeks to identify business models and arrangements that enable equitable participation in knowledge-sharing.
The policy refresh anticipates elements included in the Towards Responsible Publishing (TRP) proposal – most notably its support for the early sharing of preprints and the post publication peer review model. cOAlition S will await the results of the researcher consultation and other feedback gathered, before taking any decision regarding this proposal, including how to support payments for scholarly publishing.
Johan Rooryck, Executive Director at cOAlition S commented: “Five years on since Plan S was first published, it is entirely appropriate that funders are reviewing their OA policies to ensure they are effectively meeting their goals. The updated policy from the BMGF builds on what has been learnt, responding to the increased recognition of the value of preprints in the research enterprise. Our collective dedication to making full and immediate OA a reality remains the driving force behind our collaboration”.
