A Plan S Compendium

Plan S is to writers in scholarly publishing as Donald Trump is to the general media — a recurring provocation that generates seemingly endless copy.

Like many other outlets, “The Geyser” has been busy covering Plan S for a while now. Each time, the posts are widely read and shared. To reflect this level of interest, I’ve assembled the following list of Plan S-related posts, for your reference and convenience, as well as some selected essays and statements from beyond “The Geyser.” Each set is listed in chronological order:

• September 5, 2018. “‘Open,’ Patronage, and Plan S” — From the Caldera blog that just predates “The Geyser,” an exploration of why commercial solutions to funding are better than those emanating from patronage systems.
• November 20, 2018. “Does Plan S Contain Another OA Scandal?” — Examines the conflicts of interest and signs of self-dealing among the main proponents of Plan S in its earliest days.
• November 26, 2018. “Why Is Frontiers Fronting Plan S?” — As more details emerged about the role of the OA publisher who personally saw to the demise of Beall’s List, this question arose.
• November 28, 2018. “Who Profits from Plan S?” — A free post summarizing some of the main points of the prior two listed above.
• January 15, 2019. “Plan S, Elitism, and Power Grabs” — A post comparing the worldwide drift toward authoritarianism with the arrogant approach of Plan S, and why patronage is at the crux of both.
• January 16, 2019. “Plan S Becomes More Puzzling” — Live from Berlin, an interpretation of the infamous presentations from Plan S representatives, which were confusing and confrontational.
• January 17, 2019. “Plan S — Déjà vu and Differences” — A reflection on how Plan S, E-Biomed, and other OA initiatives resemble and differ, and why so little seems to have changed.
• February 26, 2019. “Plan S Represents a Vestige of the Past” — A detailed examination of how the world has changed over the past 20 years, while OA policymaking remains fixated on increasingly irrelevant or damaging priorities.
• May 23, 2019. “Funders, Feudalism, and Plan S” — With more general concerns about the wealthy exerting unfair influence via philanthropy and funding, the empowerment of funders in publishing may be a drift toward modern feudalism.
• June 6, 2019. “Ready for Plan X?” — Plan S may be fading away as leadership changes occur and participants drop away, but are we ready for the next proposal, which may be even more radical?
• June 11, 2019. “Plan S, the Verschlimmbesserung of Scholarly Information” — A guest post by James Phimister asks how a planned improvement may actually lead to long-term damage, while accidentally benefiting one type of organization in particular.

Tangential posts worth a look include some of the following:

• November 16, 2018. “Why Corporations Would Love Full OA” — A reflection on how pharmaceutical companies and others are finding that paying to publish into the scientific literature is a great new marketing capability.
• November 19, 2019. “Is OA Now About Destruction?” — An extension of an idea first floated on LinkedIn by James Phimister, this post discusses a change in attitude, from compatibility to confrontation.
• December 17, 2018. “Does OA Work Against Open Science?” — The funding model of OA currently doesn’t provide the stability and growth potential to support more fulsome publishing of process and results. Does that make it actually work against Open Science?

Of course, despite best efforts, “The Geyser” is not the only source of good Plan S coverage, so here are a few more pointers if you haven’t had your fill of the topic yet:

• September 20, 2018, by Tim Vines: “Plan T: Scrap APCs and Fund Open Access with Submission Fees” (Source: “The Scholarly Kitchen”)
• November 26, 2018, by Rick Anderson: “Do You Have Concerns about Plan S? Then You Must be an Irresponsible, Privileged, Conspiratorial Hypocrite” (Source: “The Scholarly Kitchen”)
• November 8, 2018: “AAP, Researchers, Deeply Concerned About Plan S” (Source: Association of American Publishers)
• December 5, 2018, by Michael Clarke: “Plan S: Impact on Society Publishers” (Source: “The Scholarly Kitchen”)
• December 7, 2018, by Angela Cochran: “Plan S: A Mandate for Gold OA with Lots of Strings Attached” (Source: “The Scholarly Kitchen”)
• January 14, 2019, by Robert Harington: “Plan S: What About the Researchers?” (Source: “The Scholarly Kitchen”)
• February 2019: “The Plan S Footprint: Implications for the Scholarly Publishing Landscape” (Source: Clarivate Analytics)
• February 11, 2019: “AAP Submits Comments to cOAlition S on Plan S Implementation Guidance” (Source: Association of American Publishers)
• June 3, 2019, by Alison Mudditt: “Plan S and the Transformation of Scholarly Communication: Are We Missing the Woods?” (Source: “The Scholarly Kitchen”)

I hope this list helps you discover something interesting and useful to read.

Have a nice weekend!

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