The Council of the National Science Centre has passed resolutions 116/2024 and 130/2024 to express its position on the policy of open access to research publications. It recommends that the NCN Director should not extend the agency’s membership in the “cOAlition S” consortium, but should continue to support OA publishing, with concessions made to the nature of each individual discipline.
In resolution 116/2024, the Council of the National Science Centre recommends that the NCN Director should not extend the agency’s membership in cOAlition S (the current agreement with the consortium expires on 31 December 2024). At the same time, it emphasises that, as of 1 January 2025, the National Science Centre should still continue to support Plan S and encourage its application, but without imposing any final project billing requirements on Polish grant holders with regard to the OA publishing of any work produced during the project. The Council recommends that grant holders should be allowed the freedom and opportunity to list the publications submitted for project billing in the final project report, but they should also be informed that the OA publishing requirement, as laid down in the grant agreement, will not be taken into account during the final project billing process.
In addition, the Council’s resolution 130/2024 explains the central rationale behind resolution 116/2024, which includes both financial and organisational reasons. The Council also makes it clear that its decision not to extend membership in cOAlition S is not a criticism of the very idea of open access to research results; the aim is only to replace the strict requirement that researchers must adhere to Plan S with a recommendation that they publish in OA journals, with concessions made to the nature of each individual discipline.