Again, it is not at all clear what is meant by this statement. Equity in academia is an incredibly important goal. This statement currently reads like unsubstantiated rhetoric. Libraries, Institutions and funders have found that the unintended consequences of deficient deals with publishers supported by their funds can include inequitable access to no-additional-cost publishing. However, the intention of the Rights Retention Strategy (RRS) is to arm all authors with detailed knowledge of their rights to ensure they have the same minimum opportunity to widely disseminate their work. Furthermore, by providing a version of an output with a CC BY license there is greater equity around accessing the research and therefore greater opportunity to build on it for public benefit, making a more equitable environment for all. The version of record (VoR) remains important in this scenario, so more equitable access should not undermine the sustainability of journals and platforms which are valued.

The publishers below will not support the Plan S rights retention strategy (RRS). In its simplest form the RRS re-asserts the authors' rights as the rights holder to assign a copyright license of their choice (CC BY informed by their funding agency) to all versions of their research/intellectual output. In the case of the RRS states that the author should apply a CC BY license to their accepted manuscript (AAM) if they cannot afford to pay article processing charges or choose not to apply a CC BY license to the Version of Record (VoR), which they are free to do. Therefore, this statement is either saying the undersigned will not carry publications forward to publication (most appropriate approach), or they will not support the same copyright laws which fundamentally protects their rights and revenue after a copyright transfer agreement is signed by the rightsholder.

Academy of Dental Materials

Acoustical Society of America

AIP Publishing

American Academy of Ophthalmology

American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus

American Chemical Society

American Gastroenterological Association American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

American Medical Association

American Physical Society

American Society for Investigative Pathology

American Society for Radiation Oncology

American Society of Civil Engineers

American Society of Hematology

American Society of Clinical Oncology

American Association of Physicists in Medicine

American Association of Physics Teachers

AVS – The Society for Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing

Brill

British Journal of Anaesthesia

Budrich Academic Press

Cambridge Media

Cambridge University Press

Canadian Cardiovascular Society

De Gruyter

Duncker & Humblot

Elsevier

Emerald

Erich Schmidt Verlag

French Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Frommann-Holzboog Verlag

Future Science Group 

Hogrefe

International Association for Gondwana Research

IOP Publishing

Journal of Nursing Regulation

Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy (JOSPT).

Julius Klinkhardt KG

La Découverte

Laser Institute America

Materials Research Forum LLC

The Optical Society (OSA)

Pearson Benelux

SAGE Publishing

Society of Rheology

Springer Nature

Taylor & Francis Group

The Geological Society of America

Thieme Group

Uitgeverij Verloren

Verlag Barbara Budrich

Vittorio Klostermann

wbv Media

Wiley

Wolters Kluwer