For over a decade, the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics–a unique collaboration involving over three thousand libraries, key funding agencies, research centers and intergovernmental organizations across in 47 countries–has successfully transitioned key journals in High-Energy Physics to Open Access, while removing financial barriers for both readers and authors.For the 2025-2027 contractual period (Phase 4), SCOAP3 has introduced an innovative mechanism designed to enhance Open Science practices. This new system features an annual assessment of critical Open Science elements, such as the implementation of persistent identifiers (e.g., ORCID, ROR), metadata completeness, the availability of open peer review, compliance with accessibility standards, and alignment with community-driven community values. In this unprecedented mechanism, publishers’ financial compensation is adjusted based on their performance in these areas, incentivizing continuous improvement in their open access offerings.This presentation will provide an overview of this novel evaluation and incentive system, highlighting how SCOAP3 is promoting a more transparent and sustainable open access publishing ecosystem, where costs are more closely tied to the services provided by the publishers to the community. It will also present the results of the first evaluations in 2025 and 2026, offering insights into publisher practices and the broader implications of this approach for the Open Science community.
Anne Gentil-Beccot (Thu,) studied this question.