ZonMw participate in open access PLOS deal
Researchers from participating institutions will be able to publish the results of NWO and ZonMw funded projects in seven journals from the publisher PLOS without incurring any costs for the next two years. To facilitate this, NWO and ZonMw are allocating funds, which they will pay directly to the consortium that negotiated the agreement with PLOS.
This new payment model for publications is part of a pilot project to explore how publication costs can be managed more efficiently and transparently while simultaneously giving a boost to Open Science. At the end of March, NWO and ZonMw signed an agreement with SURF to participate in the PLOS pilot. PLOS, short for Public Library of Science, is a scientific publisher dedicated to open access to scientific information. The pilot was initiated by UNL, the umbrella organisation of Dutch universities, and UKB, the consortium of the 13 university libraries and the Royal Library (KB). A large number of Dutch universities and research institutions are participating.
Seven PLOS Journals
Non-profit publisher PLOS exclusively publishes open access journals and was therefore chosen as a partner in the pilot. The pilot currently 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
For years, NWO and ZonMw have required that publications resulting from their funding be made open access. This is already the case for 95% of publications, according to NWO and ZonMw’s annual survey, but the method of open access publication varies. The newly signed agreement ensures permanent free access for readers through gold open access. In this case, NWO and ZonMw cover the costs via SURF to the publisher, meaning that researchers or their institutions do not need to pay. Typically, they would receive funding for this through their project budgets. This is the first time NWO and ZonMw are directly financing this publishing model.
Benefits
Researchers benefit from this agreement as they no longer have to process and pay individual invoices. For NWO and ZonMw, the pilot provides greater insight into publication practices and costs. The consortium model also offers potential discounts and workflow improvements. Additionally, it has been agreed that NWO and ZonMw will each contribute a fixed amount, regardless of the number of publications. The contract is managed by SURF, which also handles the administrative processing.
The pilot’s results will be evaluated after the first and second years. These insights will help professionalise future national agreements with open access publishers. With this initiative, NWO and ZonMw reinforce their leadership role in the transition to Open Science.