PLOS and libraries partnering to bring equal opportunity to highly selective publishing

While PLOS has seen great success with the APC model, we are the first to recognize its limitations in a true “open to read, open to publish” publishing paradigm. Any model requiring readers or authors to manage fees, reinscribes inequities that come with needing access to funding.

As our communities face a public health crisis, a nation-wide racial reckoning, and unprecedented economic challenges, the ability to publish, read, share, analyze, mine, and reuse scholarly outputs is more urgent than ever. Experimentation with new business models is essential to ensure that communities most in need of this research are able to engage when they need it, as they need it.

PLOS has been exploring new business models for some time, focusing specifically on cost recovery, prudent margins, data transparency, and financial sustainability appropriate to a non-profit. Libraries and consortia have been invaluable partners (not customers, but partners!) in the development of these models. PLOS Community Action Publishing is one outcome of this collaboration.

This webinar will provide an overview of this new collective action model (focused on highly selective journals, PLOS Medicine and PLOS Biology) in the context of the larger shared mission driving both libraries and PLOS.

Please join Niamh O’Connor (PLOS Chief Publishing Officer), Sara Rouhi, (PLOS Director, Strategic Partnerships), and Nerea Llamas (Associate University Librarian for Collections Strategy and Services at UNC Chapel Hill) for a brief overview of the model, the mission perspective from both organizations, and an open discussion with webinar attendees.

If you’d like to attend, please reserve your spot by registering at the link below:

Please direct questions in advance to Sara Rouhi:
srouhi@plos.org or on Twitter @RouhiRoo