Copernicus Publications is part of the Consortium for a Transparent Transition to Open Access (TTOA)
The European Commission has recently opened a call for tender to build an "Open Research Europe Publication Platform" in order to achieve its laudable open-access ambitions for 2020. The call suggests that the new platform is intended as a new mega journal, serving all disciplines uniformly.
Similar types of mega journal formats recently launched and tested by private research funders have suffered from limited uptake by researchers. This is understandable: researchers are reluctant to publish in new journals that have yet to develop quality standards and a reputation. More importantly, this tender does not encourage established publications and publishers to change their workflows to achieve the transparency and openness sought in the scientific enterprise.
For this reason, the TTOA Consortium has refrained from submitting a proposal to build and run a platform as currently described in the call for tender. The TTOA Consortium has instead developed a different approach to manage the transition to open access while embracing all the final features specified in the ORE Call for Tender. Our proposal calls on the expertise and the recognition of existing journals to screen the quality of the articles that are published on the platform.
Read the public statement of the TTOA consortium.