Researchers from participating institutions can publish their results from projects funded by NWO and ZonMw open access for free in seven journals from publisher PLOS over the next two years. NWO and ZonMw are allocating funds that the science financiers will pay directly to the consortium that made the agreements with PLOS.
This new way of paying for publications is part of a pilot to investigate how to manage publication costs more efficiently and transparently. The project also gives a boost to Open Science. At the end of March, NWO and ZonMw signed an agreement with SURF for participation in the PLOS pilot. PLOS stands for Public Library of Science and is a scientific publisher committed to open access to scientific information. The pilot was initiated by UNL, the umbrella organization of Dutch universities, and UKB, the collaboration of the 13 university libraries and the Royal Library KB. A large number of Dutch universities and research institutions are participating.
The non-profit publisher PLOS publishes all its journals open access and has therefore been chosen as a partner in the pilot. This includes the following seven scientific journals:
- PLOS ONE
- PLOS Complex Systems
- PLOS Computational Biology
- PLOS Digital Health
- PLOS Genetics
- PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
- PLOS Pathogens
Gold open access
NWO and ZonMw have made it a condition for funding for years that publications are published open access. This already happens in 95 percent of cases, according to the annual inventory of NWO and ZonMw, but the way of publishing open access varies. The now concluded agreement results in permanent free access for readers (gold open access). NWO and ZonMw pay the costs via SURF to the publisher, and researchers or their institutions do not have to pay the costs. It is customary for them to receive funding for this through project financing. This is the first time that NWO and ZonMw are directly financing this method of publishing.
Advantages
Researchers benefit from this agreement as they no longer have to process and pay individual invoices. For NWO and ZonMw, the pilot provides more insight into publication behavior and costs. The consortium model also allows for potential discounts and improvements in workflows. It has been agreed that NWO and ZonMw each pay a fixed amount, regardless of the number of publications. The contract is managed by SURF, which also takes care of the administrative processing.
The results of the pilot will be evaluated after the first and second years. These experiences will serve to professionalize future national deals with open access publishers. With this step, NWO and ZonMw underline their pioneering role in the transition to Open Science.