Plan S

Plan S is an initiative by European research funders, the EU Commission, and the European Research Council (ERC). Its core objective is to ensure that all research funded by participating organizations is immediately made openly accessible. To publish research covered by Plan S in a journal, the journal must meet their criteria for publishing channels. On this page, we will outline the relevant requirements for FRITT journals and how these can be fulfilled on the FRITT platform. 

Peer Review Standards:  

The journal must adhere to high standards in peer review, guided by the practices and guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). 

This valuable information can be seamlessly integrated into the "About the Journal" section (Settings > Journal > Masthead > Description). Further guidance on crafting this description can be explored in PKP's resources for "Peer Review Policy." 

See also FRITT’s webpage on Publication ethics.  

Editorial Policies and Decision-Making Processes: 

The journal must have detailed information on editorial policies and decision-making processes. This information can be placed under "About the Journal" or "Author Guidelines" (Settings > Workflow > Submissions > Author Guidelines). Alternatively, a dedicated page for this information can be created. For more details on the type of information to include, refer to PKP's resources for "Ethics Statements and Policies." 

Statistics: 

The Journal must publish fundamental statistics annually. This includes the number of submissions, the number of requested peer reviews, the number of peer reviews received, acceptance rate, and the average time between submission and publication. Below we describe how you can find the relevant statistics for your FRITT journal.  

Note: The process of retrieving these statistics may be streamlined with the implementation of OJS 3.4. 

The number of submissions can be found under Editorial Activity in the Statistics section. There, you can customize the dates to generate a report for one year. 

The number of requested and received peer reviews can be obtained under Reports in the Statistics section. Download the Review Report on Peer Review Assignments and tally the "Date notified" and "Date completed" for the relevant period.  

  • "Date notified" represents requested reviews 
  • "Date completed" indicates received peer reviews. 

Acceptance rate is located under Editorial Activity in the Statistics section. 

To determine the average time between submission and publication, download the two reports, "View Report" and "Articles Report," from the Report Generator (Reports) under the Statistics section. Extract the "Date published" column from the Vies Report and the "Date Submitted" from the Articles Report for the relevant period. Place these two columns into the same document. Calculate the difference between the dates in the two columns for each article and then compute the average. 

Author Retention of Copyright: 

Licenses to publish must preserve the right and responsibility of the author/institution to make the VoR (Version of Record) or the AAM (Author Accepted Manuscript) of the article Open Access immediately upon publication, under an open license.  

Plan S essentially requires authors to publish under a CC BY 4.0 license. CC BY-SA and CC0 may also be accepted, while a single article can be licensed under CC BY-ND if explicitly requested and justified by the funding recipient. 

Information about the journal's license is entered under Distribution > License. Here, you can specify the rights holder (the author must be selected for approval according to Plan S), and you can choose from various CC licenses. 

Under Workflow > Submission > Author Instructions, you will find the field for the copyright statement. Here, you should provide information about copyright and what the authors approve when publishing in the journal. 

Persistent Identifiers for Publications: 

All articles must have persistent identifiers. FRITT uses DOIs, with expenses covered by the University Library. 

To add a DOI to an article, go to the individual submission, navigate to "Publication," and click on "Identifier." Click "Assign," and the article's DOI will appear. Remember to click "Save." 

Long-Term Content Preservation: 

Plan S requires content to be deposited to a long-term digital preservation or archiving program. The following options are available via OJS: 

PKP Preservation Network (PN): 

Global LOCKSS Network  

  • Journals can directly join the Global LOCKSS Network (annual fees apply). 
  • Enable LOCKSS archiving in OJS under Distribution Settings > Archiving > LOCKSS and CLOCKSS. 

CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS) 

  • Another distributed dark archive option with annual fees. 
  • Enable CLOCKSS archiving in OJS under Distribution Settings > Archiving > LOCKSS and CLOCKSS. 
  • Portico: 

Portico 

  • Community-supported preservation service with annual fees. 
  • Install the Portico plugin for OJS 3.1.2 and newer. 
  • Manually export OJS content for deposit via Tools > Import/Export > Portico Export Plugin. 

Additional Recommendation: 

Indicate on your journal's website that it participates in the chosen preservation program, e.g., "The publisher ensures dark archiving and preservation through PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN)." 

Metadata: 

Journals must have high-quality meta-data for articles. OJS supports the export of metadata in standard interoperable formats such as XML and Dublin Core. 

Article metadata in FRITT is initially recorded by authors or editors and can later be edited by editors. For more information, refer to OJS's pages on best practices for metadata and learn how to avoid common errors and ensure metadata accuracy. 

Regarding metadata about funders, Plan S requires, at a minimum, the name of the funder and the project number. To enable the option for metadata about funders in OJS, go to Workflow > Submission > Metadata. There, you can check the box for "Enable metadata associated with supporting organizations." 

Machine-Readable Open Access Status and License: 

The journal must have a machine-readable open-access status and license. Use the CC License Picker under Distribution > License (described above) to make the license machine-readable. Additionally, this information must be in the article file (PDF, XML/HTML). For PDFs, add it to the footer or the first/last page. For XML/HTML, insert it into the appropriate tag/element. Use the CC License tool to generate a license statement. 

DOAJ Registration: 

Open Access journals must be registered in DOAJ or in the process of being registered. Learn more about how to be indexed in DOAJ on FRITT’s indexing information page.  

No Mirror Journals: 

Open Access journals cannot have mirror or sister journals that are subscription-based and have significant overlap in editorial members. 

 

Read more about how to comply with Plan S requirements and recommendations in OJS on OJS's Guide to Plan S compliance.