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The main aim of the platform is to offer Horizon 2020 beneficiaries a free and fast publication possibility for peer reviewed articles as well as pre-prints resulting from Horizon 2020 funding.
The platform will complement the current policy in Horizon 2020 – where Open Access to publication is mandatory – in order to balance obligations with incentives. The platform will be free to use for Horizon 2020 grantees at the point of delivery (the costs being fully covered by the proposed public procurement) and operate on a strictly voluntary basis. Furthermore, the platform will explore many features not found in traditional journals: not only Open Access but also open peer review, next generation metrics, and access to preprints; all of these are important components of Open Science (and part of the 2016 Amsterdam Call for Action).
To implement such a demand-driven platform a robust service is needed, on par with the highest quality standards of scientific publishing; this can only be provided by outsourcing the implementation of the platform through a fully transparent public procurement process, allowing any entity to apply. Such an action has therefore been included in the Work Programme 2018. Over a duration of 4 years a maximum of 6.4 million € are foreseen for this action.
Through this action the Commission builds on and further develops the best practice example of other funders, such as publication platforms by the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.