NWO joins international coalition to accelerate the transition to open access

Today, an international group of research councils called ‘cOAlition S’ and including the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, announced a plan for accelerating the transition to open access. The essence of the plan is that from 1 January 2020 onwards, all publications that emerge from research funded by these research councils must be published in open access journals or open access platforms. The initiative for the accelerated plan was taken by Robert-Jan Smits, special envoy open access at the European Commission, and is endorsed by a broad coalition of national and European research councils

The most important consequence of the plan is that from 1 January 2020 onwards, all publications which emerge from NWO/ZonMw funding and funding from other research councils must be published in open access journals or open access platforms. Publication in hybrid journals that work according to the old subscription model but offer the possibility to make articles open access will be allowed during a transition period of two years, that is until the end of 2021 and only if these journals are covered by the type of transformative deals that the VSNU concludes with publishers on behalf of all universities in the Netherlands. In disciplines where there are not enough opportunities for open access, the organisations will take and support initiatives to create possibilities for these disciplines as well.

- Full press-release NWO 

- Link to plan S