With the Plan S 2020 deadline now less than eight months away, there is much conjecture around how its ambitious objective to make “full and immediate Open Access a reality” can be achieved.
Last month, Digital Science brought together a unique panel of speakers from across the industry for a webinar – Gaining perspective on Plan S. During the hour-long event, the 450+ attendees heard first-hand about progress to date, as well as some of the hurdles stakeholders are encountering along the path.
The webinar made it clear that Plan S is likely to bring big change to the research ecosystem and while many broadly support its aims, concerns remain around its potential impact on researchers and publishers. It also highlighted the need for collaboration, flexibility, and a willingness to listen if immediate Open Access (OA) is to achieve the kind of widespread adoption the plan is advocating.
Speaker David Sweeney, Executive Chair of funder UK Research and Innovation, confirmed that, for cOAlition S, working in partnership with the wider research community to understand their concerns is a key objective. “This is meant to be a collaboration and cooperation. We want to recognize the interests of all, not just funders and authors, but publishers too. We are not laying down the law. We recognize the need to listen and amend some of our details.”
His message of collaboration was echoed by the findings of a recent Digital Science report, The Ascent of Open Access, which used Dimensions data to explore how the Open Access (OA) landscape has changed since the turn of the millennium. Talking during the webinar, one of the report authors, Digital Science CEO Daniel Hook, commented:
“What we found is that attitudes to Open Science are changing and international collaboration has played a role in sparking that change. Collaboration is one of the watchwords when it comes to pushing Open Science forward. We need continued, coordinated initiatives (funder, policy etc.) to keep the momentum going.”
How Dimensions can help you prepare for Plan S
Dimensions contains up-to-date information on more than 4 million funded grants, linking them to other sources such as publications, patents, and policy documents. Unlike other platforms, Dimensions isn’t confined to historic grant data – it covers active research projects as well as those in the pipeline (projects where funding has been awarded but research has yet to begin). This provides long-term visibility of grant activity.The advanced Dimensions’ filters allow users to refine searches based on research institution, country, funder, researcher or publisher – or combinations of these. They can also filter articles by Open Access type, e.g. bronze, green or gold. More information on these options is available in our recent blog post on the topic.
Importantly, these filters make it possible to select the group of funders behind cOAlition S (a list that users can customize to meet their needs). When this is applied in connection with other filters, such as Open Access type and publisher name, organizations can quickly and simply gain an overview of what Plan S might mean for them.
Publishers are also working with the Dimensions Consultancy team on custom reports that highlight valuable data points for their organization, including:
- The number (and percentage) of current publications funded by the organizations supporting Plan S.
- How many of those publications match the top 10 fields of research that Plan S signatories have pledged to fund through 2025.
- Active grants (by field) awarded by cOAlition S funders.
- How much published research was conducted in the 10 key countries that Plan S funders have pledged to support projects in through 2025.
- The top funders based on publication count – helping them identify which Plan S funders already feature heavily on the list, and assess the potential impact of other funders joining the coalition.
Contextualize your publications with the Dimensions badges
As Silverchair client, you may be familiar with our free Dimensions Badges (for indexing partners) which can provide you with an easy way to visualize and showcase the number of citations that your publications have received. 
The Dimensions Badge, which shows a count of total citations in the middle and more details when hovered over, allows visitors to your journal platform to quickly assess the article’s impact by viewing clear and understandable metrics:
- Total Citations - the total number of times a publication has been cited. Dimensions counts citations from the reference list in all publications that have been indexed.
- Recent Citations - the recent citations value is the number of citations that were received in the last two years.
- Field Citation Ratio (FCR) - the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) indicates the relative citation performance of an article, when compared to similarly-aged articles in its subject area.
- Relative Citation Ratio (RCR) - the Relative Citation Ratio (RCR) indicates the relative citation performance of an article, when compared to other articles in its area of research.
Contact universe@silverchair.com to learn more about integrating Dimensions with your content on the Silverchair Platform.