A planned novel Open Access journal format that combines for the first time publishing with funding.

Plan S is an initiative for Open Access publishing that was launched in September 2018 with the support of the European Commission and the European Research Council (ERC) by an international consortium of research funders. Plan S requires that, from 2021, scientific publications that result from research funded by public grants must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms.

This development requires that – within relatively short time – high impact Plan S compliant Open Access journals become available as alternatives to current subscription based high impact journals.

Towards this goal, a group of European scientists, headed by Stefan Krauss form Oslo and including leading scientists from the European Organ-on-Chip Society (EUROoCS), have joined forces to create a novel experimental Open Access journal format that combines – for the first time – publishing and funding. By combining those two features in one format, the group of scientists hopes to be able to attract potential high impact manuscripts while facilitating and simplifying fund raising. The success of the new format will depend on sponsoring of the funding by research organizations, and on a high scoring editorial board. Ongoing discussions are encouraging.

The journal format is planned to be administrated by a scientist driven non-profit foundation that is responsible for sponsor interface, technology and contingency, while the thematic Open Access journals are planned to be driven by scientific or editorial societies. The specialized journal about Micro Physiological Systems/Organ-on-Chip might become the official journal of EUROoCS.

The flyer shows the details of the planned scheme.