New BioMed Alliance Statement: Open Access Initiatives must not create inequality

Together with medical societies from the Open Access Transition Working Group of the BioMed Alliance we published a statement on 5 October highlighting a series of concerns around Plan S. The statement also expresses support for a European Research Council statement from 20 July stating the ERC’s concerns around this open access initiative and announcing their withdrawal from cOAlition S.

Our main concerns regarding Plan S are focussed on the consequences for: researchers (including inequality and rising costs), guaranteeing the quality of research (especially in health research) and hybrid journals (which play an essential role in informing health care professionals through medical society publications).

The full statement is available here.