Scientific journals on alert by restriction on publication of paid articles
From the year 2020, scientific research funded by 11 European agencies, should ensure free and immediate access once they are published. Known as the S-Plan, measure restricts the financing of important journals such as Nature, Science, Cell and The Lancet.
What is being sought is that scientific investigations are available immediately and that the transition to the open access (OA) in science is a reality. For this reason, 11 organizations of research funding from several European countries today introduced a controversial measure.From 2020, these agencies will request that all scientific investigations that finance will be available free of charge from the moment of the publication.
The group, including national funding agencies in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France, and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Italy, spending altogether around 7,600 million euros in research annually. In a statement, announced that he no longer allowed delays of six to 12 months that many subscription magazines require now before a document is made OA.
"We believe that this could create a turning point," said Marc Schiltz, President of Science Europe, Association of scientific organizations based in Brussels that the new model."Really, the idea was great and decisive, not to create another statement or expression of intention to step"He insisted.
This measure will mean that researchers must resign to publish thousands of journals, asNature, Science, Cell and The Lancet.
Plan S
With these new rules, the documents would have a liberal publication license, i.e.anyone download, translate or reuse the work. "No science should be locked behind the walls of payment!",It says the document of the so-called S Plan, released today.
"It's a very powerful statement. It will be controversial and will provoke strong feelings,"said the journal Nature Stephen Curry, structural biologist and advocate of open at London's Imperial College access. The policy, said Curry, marks a "significant change" in the open-access publishing movement.
However, the editors of scientific journals not expressed as according to the measure, that "potentially undermines the entire publication of research", said a spokesman for the magazineSpringer Naturepublishing more than 3,000 magazines.
"The implementation of this plan, in our opinion, would disrupt academic communications, would be detrimental to researchers and would affect the academic freedom," said an editor ofScience.
In a statement, the International Association of editors scientists, technicians and doctors, called the "caution", but that "it is vital that researchers have the freedom to publish in the publication of their choice".
The initiative is spearheaded by Robert-Jan Smits, Special Envoy of the European Commission about open access. Together with the agencies of the French, British and Dutch financiers, national agencies in Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland and Slovenia also signed the ad, as well as the boards of research in Italy and Sweden.
