Plan S may ‘consolidate power of big publishers’, academy warns

It would have been useful if the article had clarified Mr Sweeney's comment “there has to be some discussion about whether these services are wanted”. It appears to refer to the costs of the editorial process referred to in the previous paragraph mentioned by Julia Mortimer. As a journal editor, I entirely agree with her. The editorial process is not something that just happens, and yet there has been, through the debates over open access, a refusal to accept the role of journals in shaping (and in many cases nurturing) the work of contributors. Mr Sweeney doubtless feel that just placing ill-written, often ill-thought through papers in a university repository is enough. He may be right, but if so, I conclude that he doesn't believe in quality, merely volume. This may do with largely technical papers reporting results in the STEM subjects, but will not work in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The overall argument is largely correct though: once Mr Sweeney has put the learned societies out of business, they will be a greater recourse to the conglomerate publishers. Richard Hoyle Editor, Agricultural History Review

Plan S is a sledgehammer aimed at commercial publishers who basically exploit the academic community who both pay to publish their Open Access articles, while providing editorial and reviewing services free of charge. However, Plan S will also have serious impacts on learned societies for whom publishing is a key part of their charitable function and who use any surplus from their publishing activities to support their academic and the wider community. The learned societies that I have been heavily involved with contribute to the public awareness of issues such antibiotic resistance and global warming, provide grants for early career researchers, and run summer schools, congresses and focused meetings. Learned society subscription-based journal also provide a cost-free vehicle for publishing research funded by small charities and developing countries while still providing an Open Access option for those who require it. The catch all Plan S risks "throwing the baby out with the bath water". It will also not solve the underlying issue – you only have to look at the cost of Open Access publishing in the so-called Discovery Journals.

Apart from the impact on learned societies in Humanities and Social Sciences, and I fully sympathise with the editors and publishers of such journals who can clearly see the shortcomings of Plan S, there is also an impact on retired academics in HSS, many of whom continue to research and wish to publish. There is no-one to pay article publication fees for them. Are they to be excluded from professional discussion?