Is an instance
A funder requires every grant-funded manuscript to be posted on a preprint server at submission.
Is an instance
An institution rewards researchers for preprint deposit independently of the journal eventually selected.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A funder accepts only published OA articles, providing no recognition for preprint deposit.
Not an instance
An author posts a preprint after journal publication has already provided OA, defeating the rationale.

Editorial commentary

Plan U was proposed by Brian Nosek, John Inglis and Richard Sever in 2019. It argues that the simplest, lowest-cost route to immediate OA is to require funded researchers to post preprints in approved servers (bioRxiv, medRxiv, arXiv, SSRN) at or before journal submission. Unlike Plan S, Plan U does not constrain venue choice for the final published version; it ensures that an openly licensed manuscript exists from the moment research is shared. Several funders (Howard Hughes, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, ASAPbio supporters) have moved in this direction.

References

Nosek BA, Inglis CJ, Sever R 'Plan U: Universal access to scientific and medical research via funder preprint mandates' PLOS Biology 2019.

Also known as

Plan U

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Plan U (Preprint)"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/plan-u-preprint" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/plan-u-preprint",
  "name": "Plan U (Preprint)",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/plan-u-preprint",
  "description": "A 2019 proposal that funders mandate deposit of preprints in approved preprint servers as a route to immediate open access, complementing Plan S.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/knowledge-equity#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/plan-u-preprint",
  "sameAs": [
    "Plan U"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-05-21T02:22:55",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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