Publishing models in the era of Plan S

Poster for LISA IX conference.

Plan S is an initiative for immediate Open Access publishing, launched in 2018 by the cOAlition S, an international consortium of research funders. Under Plan S, publication in hybrid journals is not funded. Thanks to the regulations defined by Plan S, OA publishing gained unprecedented discussion and momentum as it forced many science publishers to rethink their publishing models.

This poster presents a schematic overview of the most common publication business models currently used in science publishing, with a focus on Gold and Diamond OA models as well as Transformative Agreements. For each model, the main characteristics (Who pays? Who can read? Who can publish?) are listed, along with the model’s Plan S compliance and the assumed cost evolution. Questions are raised regarding the expected benefits, risks and sustainability. The authors conclude that Subscribe to Open (S2O), a library-supported Diamond Open Access publishing model, has compelling advantages and should receive more attention from the librarians’ community. The poster is based on the presentation slide “Publication Business Models”, DOI 10.18727/docs/10, CC-BY 4.0.