27 November 2019
A recent survey of ICE Publishing authors showed that there is very little discussion of Plan S within the civil and environmental engineering community. Plan S is an open access initiative that was launched in September 2018. It is supported by a number of European research funding agencies and organisations, all aiming to improve free access to research. Plan S states that from 2021, open access should be a requirement of research outputs funded by public grants.
ICE Publishing journals are compliant with the requirements of Plan S. More than one year after its announcement, it was decided to test awareness of Plan S among the civil and environmental engineering community. 79% of respondents said 'no' when asked “Has a representative of your employer mentioned Plan S to you?”, 85% when it was changed to “a representative of any research funding agency”, and 81% when it was “a colleague or peer at your workplace”. The survey was sent to recent authors and had 150 responses.
Ben Ramster, Journals Manager ICE Publishing, said, “These findings show that there is much more to be done by all stakeholders in terms of communicating Plan S to civil and environmental engineers. ICE Publishing will continue to support our author community as they seek greater clarity on this important topic.”