Plan S is a project of research funding agencies and foundations affiliated with cOAlition S in September 2018. Plan S obliges institutes and universities to ensure immediate open access to scientific publications arising from public or non-public grants awarded by national, regional or international funding bodies and research councils. Plan S is based on 10 principles complemented by detailed guidelines for scientific articles. The rules and the translations are available at the cOAliton S website (original text) and at the Open Science website (Polish translation).
Journals
While selecting a journal, we also recommend checking the number of points awarded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education The Ministry’s Journal Scoring List (Bridge of Knowledge or MUB Library - polish sub-page) and decide on the publication path:
- Open access Journals – publishing under an open licence e.g., Creative Commons. In addition, the journal should be present or be in the process of being registered in the DOAJ database in the case of research funded by the National Science Centre;
- Open publishing under the NPV licence – transformative agreements;
- A journal in a subscription or hybrid model. Plan S permits the use of journals in this model, but only until 2024, provided that the postprint version of the article will be published in an open repository.
The following types of open access licences are acceptable within the framework of open access funded by the National Science Centre:
- CC BY 4.0
- CC BY-SA 4.0 – for articles under transformative agreements
- CC BY-ND 4.0 in special cases, previously agreed upon with the National Science Centre
In order to preserve copyrights, cOAlition S has created a Rights Retention Strategy (RRS).
For this reason, researchers funded by cOAlition S members shall:
- Inform the publisher in a Submission Letter or Acknowledgements or both that the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) resulting from this submission is licensed under CC BY:
„This research was funded, in whole or in part, by [Organisation name, Grant #]. A CC BY or equivalent license is applied to [the AAM/the VoR] arising from this submission, in accordance with the grant’s open access conditions”.
- After publication: make the AAM version of the publication available in the repository.
In the event of any dispute with the publisher, authors should contact their organisation organised within cOAlition S.
For additional information on archiving in a particular journal, please visit the Sherpa/Romeo website.
Please use the Journal Checker Tool to check compliance with Plan S.
Monographs, books
While searching for a publisher, we advise to select one included on the list of entities publishing peer-reviewed scientific monographs [polish website].
Currently, Plan S only applies to peer-reviewed scientific articles. Timeframes for achieving Open Access for monographs and book chapters are understood to be extended longer and require a separate and due process. cOAlition S is expected to issue a statement by the end of 2021 on monographs and book chapters including guidance on implementation.
Despite the above, we recommend you to join the effort to promote openness in science and to indicate your willingness to publish the text under an open licence and in an open repository in a postprint or VoR version during discussions with publishers.
Doctoral dissertations at the Medical University of Bialystok
In accordance with Ordinance no. 62/2020 of the Rector of the Medical University of Bialystok, the author of the dissertation has the following obligations:
- to provide the Main Library of the Medical University of Bialystok with one hard copy of the dissertation and a compatible electronic version prior to the defence;
- to ensure open access to the doctoral thesis by depositing or allowing to deposit an electronic copy thereof in the Repository of the Medical University of Bialystok (PPM Local Repository) and making it publicly available in the Repository of the Polish Medical Platform (PPM Repository) pursuant to the concluded licence agreement or an agreement on transfer of property rights.