Since a few months, there is one issue that keeps popping up during each gathering of Dutch scientists, and that is the Plan S idea.
I will explain this first of all on the EU level what it means and secondly give some ideas on how this plan has landed in The Netherlands.

Plan S in Europe
Plan S is an initiative of “cOAlition S,” a consortium launched by the Europen Research Council and major national research agencies and funders from twelve European countries are participating. According to this Plan S scientists and researchers, who benefit from state-funded research organizations and institutions, have to publish their work in open repositories or open access journals, and this should be all from 2020 onwards.

Since not much progress was made in the whole open access movement this PLAN S is forcing everybody to move towards Open Access. The Coalition believes to make it possible that this could change the structure of science publishing in two years.
“All EU Member States are committed to making all publicly funded research Open Access by 2020, but we need to accelerate progress towards this objective. I therefore very much welcome this initiative by national research funders and Science Europe to work together with the European Commission to move forward collectively” EU Commissioner Moedas stated during a meeting, held at the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) in Toulouse.

PlanS in The Netherlands
I will emphasize the Dutch discussion.
A hectic debate started: supporters and opponents raised their voice. Also, researchers who support the objectives of open access are concerned about the objectives of Plan S. Public consultation meetings were organized to have discussions with researchers.
On the first of November a discussion meeting was organized by the Royal Academic of Sciences (KNAW) and also the Dutch Research Funder NWO was present. The KNAW and NWO support Plan S. But also, more critical researchers gave presentations. See: https://vimeo.com/album/5533046

Primary concerns of researchers are:
1. What does Plan S mean for international research projects with researchers from countries that do not participate in Plan S?
2. There are differences in open access publishing options in the different fields which are not addressed in Plan S
3. Some researchers see Plan S as a serious violation of academic freedom
4. What does the adaptation of Plan S mean for the business model of learned societies?

Concerning this last issue, CoalitionS is looking for a consultant who will investigate this last issue.

In the Netherlands, there will be a second consultation meeting on 31 January on the implementation of Plan S organized by NWO and ZonMw

All researchers are requested for their feedback. See: https://www.coalition-s.org/feedback/

Drs. M. Th. Koelen (Marga)
Research Support Coordinator Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation ITC University of Twente
Faculty Bureau
Policy Advisor University Library
31 53 489 2137 | m.t.koelen@utwente.nl
Secretary ITC Ethics Committee
Secretary IFLA SC Academic and Research Libraries
Member Unesco Theme Group Permanent Access