In newly-released brief, SPARC Europe details 20 key changes to recent Plan S revisions
At the end of May, cOAlition S published its latest revisions to the Plan S Principles and Implementation Guidance, the results of an open consultation period that invited feedback from universities, learned societies, publishers, scholarly associations, and individual scholars from more than 40 countries. SPARC Europe immediately began work on an analysis and identified 20 key changes. These are detailed in a report we released earlier this month.

Among the key changes identified: a one-year extension of the deadline for Plan S Principles to take effect; expansion of the scope of Plan S to encompass research funded by private – and not only public – grants; the inclusion of the recognition of repositories as comparable to OA journals and other platforms in the main, and other, Principles; the right of authors or their institutions to retain copyright and a license to publish OA at no extra cost; downgraded requirements for OA platforms, journals and repositories and last but not least, a new principle where cOAlition S funders commit to assessing research outputs based on their intrinsic value, not on journal metrics such as the impact factor, the publication channel or publisher.

Download the Plan S Analysis in full.

Cast your vote: SPARC Europe seeks to fill two Board positions
Last month, we sent a request to our members asking that you send nominations for two Board positions that will become available this year. As a result, we have three candidates we are now presenting to you for consideration:

• Dr. Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost, UCL Library Services, UK
• Mr. William Nixon, Assistant Director, University of Glasgow Library, UK
• Dr. Charlotte Wien, Professor Scholarly Communication and Head of the Department for Research and Analysis and Head of Researcher Services, The University Library of Southern Denmark

For more information on the candidates - to access their CVs and cover letters - and to cast your vote, see SPARC Europe online.

Planning underway for new OA books network
Planning is well underway for the development of an OA Books Network, one that will coordinate related work among countries, foster innovation and accelerate OA progress within academic book publishing. SPARC Europe is among those leading the initiative and is actively working to engage the community in the effort. 

A panel session devoted to the topic was held earlier this month at ELPUB 2019. The panel was led by Eelco Ferwerda from OAPEN,  with the University of Cambridge’s Rupert Gatti, Pierre Mounier of OPERAS, Andrea Bertino of SUB Goettingen, and SPARC Europe Director Vanessa Proudman; tackled a range of fundamental topics including potential challenges, who the network would serve, specifically; and approaches for launch it; and funding. SPARC Europe has compiled a summary of this meeting, together with background on the genesis of the planning, in an article posted on our website.

Read our article on the OA Books Network.

Results of European funder survey are in and under review
The results of a survey intended to glean insights into the various patterns of rewards and incentives being employed by European research funders to encourage openness to the research they fund are in and currently being analysed. More than 60 of those targed responded to the survey, a first of its kind.

Among the high-level findings, results show that among those surveyed: 

• 37 have a policy with OA-related requirements
• 19 have a research data policy
• Half provide no support - financially or in-kind - for OA platforms, journals, standards, principles, repositories or services.
• 27 have signed up for or expressed support for DORA
• Respondents included key international funding bodies, national funding agencies, major charities and foundations, national academies and key research performing organisation.

SPARC Europe conducted the survey in consultation with ALLEA, The European Foundation Centre (EFC) and Science Europe, which are collectively analysing the results and discussing how to take them forward.

A full report on the survey will be released in Autumn.

PUBMET2019 seeks abstracts for September conference
PUBMET2019, a conference on scholarly publishing in the context of open science, is scheduled for 19-20 September, 2019, at the University of Zadar in Croatia. 

This year’s conference will encompass themes ranging from open scholarship in relation to Plan S, to digital repositories (including next generation), personal data protection, copyright and licensing; to research assessment to digital scholarly publishing.

Organisers are currently calling for abstracts representing research, editorial work, publishing activities, initiatives, projects, services, products and experiences related to Open scholarly communications. We encourage you to attend this scholarly publishing conference that promises quality presentations, good opportunities to network and a magical venue.

For more information about the agenda and speakers, and how to submit an abstract:

Visit the conference website.