#oaintheusa — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #oaintheusa, aggregated by home.social.
-
"Research Groups Oppose Capping #NIH Funding of Publisher Fees."
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/science-research-policy/2025/12/16/research-groups-oppose-capping-nih-fundingPS: These universities seem to be saying: "We accept the growth of the APC model. We just need help paying APCs." They don't take any responsibility for steering authors toward high-prestige, high-JIF, high-APC journals, and don't acknowledge their ability to change those incentives while upholding their historic standards of quality. They could say instead, "We will revise our research assessment (promotion and tenure) procedures to focus on the quality of research more than where it is published." Insofar as universities succeed at shifting those incentives -- admittedly a long game -- authors could submit work to no-fee or diamond OA journals, bypass APC-based journals, and face no blowback from their P&T committees. All researchers and research institutions would win, including those institutions that now want govt help in paying APCs.
#Academia #AcademicMastodon #APCs #Assessment #DiamondOA #OAintheUSA #OpenAccess #ScholComm #Universities
-
1/ I'm sympathetic to #NIH-funded authors who want to publish in certain #APC-based #OpenAccess journals and can't find the money to pay the APCs. But it's false to say that they must publish in those journals, in any other APC-based OA journals, or even in OA journals. Shame on _Inside Higher Ed_ for leaving this false impression..
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/research/2025/12/05/nih-policy-holding-researchers-hostagePS: I repeat: Compliance with the NIH OA policy is free of charge. Moreover, compliance is all about depositing in a certain repository, not publishing in a certain journal or kind of journal. The NIH has a #GreenOA policy, not a #GoldOA policy. The same is true for all the other federal agencies with OA policies, not just the NIH. When a journal charges NIH-funded authors an APC to publish, the fee is to publish in that particular journal, not to comply with the NIH policy. Don't be fooled by the widespread misunderstanding that compliance with these policies requires paying any kind of fee. Don't be fooled by journals and publishers that cynically spread this myth themselves or leave it uncorrected. You can help by correcting this falsehood wherever you see it. You can also help by working with hiring, promotion, tenure, and funding committees to care more about the quality of research than the journals in which it is published.
🧵
#APCs #NelsonMemo #NIH #OpenAccess #OAintheUSA #PublicAccess #Repositories
-
Update. The #NIH just released the 914 public comments it received on its plan to cap the use of grant funds to pay #APCs.
https://osp.od.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Compiled-Public-Comments-on-the-RFI-on-Maximizing-Research-Funds-by-Limiting-Allowable-Publishing-Costs.pdf -
Thanks to #SPARC (@sparc) for this new "Guide for Authors Complying with U.S. Federal Agency Public Access and Publisher Policies."
https://sparcopen.org/our-work/guide-for-authors-complying-with-policies/Bottom line: Compliance with the US federal #OpenAccess policies is free of charge. Publishers who charge fed-funded authors a fee to make their work OA are charging to publish in their journals, not charging to comply with fed policy. You can publish elsewhere and avoid those fees.
-
The federal govt shutdown is halting or slowing operations at #OpenAccess #repositories like #PubMedCentral: "Because of a lapse in government funding, the information on this website may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the website may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted."
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ -
The #NIH is calling for public comments on its plan to cap the use of grant funds to pay #APCs. It seeks comments on five listed options and/or suggestions for other options.
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-138.htmlThe comment deadline is September 15, 2025. The NIH plans to start implementing its APC-capping policy on January 1, 2026.
-
1/ The new #NIH #OpenAccess policy takes effect today.
https://grants.nih.gov/policy-and-compliance/policy-topics/public-accessHere are a few notable points about the policy.
The NIH has had a mandatory OA policy since 2008. The new policy is a strengthened version that eliminates the permissible embargo. The policy now requires unembargoed or immediate OA, from the date of publication.
https://grants.nih.gov/faqs#/search/693/embargoThis strengthening was required by the #Biden-era #NelsonMemo from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (#OSTP).
Note that Trump has not revoked or weakened the Nelson Memo even though it came out of the Biden White House and uses #DEI language. Nor has he scuttled or weakened any agency policies drafted under its guidance.
That may be baffling. But part of the larger picture is that Trump's own OSTP in his first term drafted a memo similar to the Nelson Memo. It too would have strengthened the federal OA policies by eliminating the embargo.
https://slate.com/technology/2020/02/academic-publishing-market-trump-executive-order.htmlThere may be many reasons why he didn't sign the memo, including the fact that it wasn't finished until near the end of his term when he was caught in impeachment hearings.
🧵
-
1/ The new #NIH #OpenAccess policy takes effect today.
https://grants.nih.gov/policy-and-compliance/policy-topics/public-accessHere are a few notable points about the policy.
The NIH has had a mandatory OA policy since 2008. The new policy is a strengthened version that eliminates the permissible embargo. The policy now requires unembargoed or immediate OA, from the date of publication.
https://grants.nih.gov/faqs#/search/693/embargoThis strengthening was required by the #Biden-era #NelsonMemo from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (#OSTP).
Note that Trump has not revoked or weakened the Nelson Memo even though it came out of the Biden White House and uses #DEI language. Nor has he scuttled or weakened any agency policies drafted under its guidance.
That may be baffling. But part of the larger picture is that Trump's own OSTP in his first term drafted a memo similar to the Nelson Memo. It too would have strengthened the federal OA policies by eliminating the embargo.
https://slate.com/technology/2020/02/academic-publishing-market-trump-executive-order.htmlThere may be many reasons why he didn't sign the memo, including the fact that it wasn't finished until near the end of his term when he was caught in impeachment hearings.
🧵
-
1/ The new #NIH #OpenAccess policy takes effect today.
https://grants.nih.gov/policy-and-compliance/policy-topics/public-accessHere are a few notable points about the policy.
The NIH has had a mandatory OA policy since 2008. The new policy is a strengthened version that eliminates the permissible embargo. The policy now requires unembargoed or immediate OA, from the date of publication.
https://grants.nih.gov/faqs#/search/693/embargoThis strengthening was required by the #Biden-era #NelsonMemo from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (#OSTP).
Note that Trump has not revoked or weakened the Nelson Memo even though it came out of the Biden White House and uses #DEI language. Nor has he scuttled or weakened any agency policies drafted under its guidance.
That may be baffling. But part of the larger picture is that Trump's own OSTP in his first term drafted a memo similar to the Nelson Memo. It too would have strengthened the federal OA policies by eliminating the embargo.
https://slate.com/technology/2020/02/academic-publishing-market-trump-executive-order.htmlThere may be many reasons why he didn't sign the memo, including the fact that it wasn't finished until near the end of his term when he was caught in impeachment hearings.
🧵
-
1/ The new #NIH #OpenAccess policy takes effect today.
https://grants.nih.gov/policy-and-compliance/policy-topics/public-accessHere are a few notable points about the policy.
The NIH has had a mandatory OA policy since 2008. The new policy is a strengthened version that eliminates the permissible embargo. The policy now requires unembargoed or immediate OA, from the date of publication.
https://grants.nih.gov/faqs#/search/693/embargoThis strengthening was required by the #Biden-era #NelsonMemo from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (#OSTP).
Note that Trump has not revoked or weakened the Nelson Memo even though it came out of the Biden White House and uses #DEI language. Nor has he scuttled or weakened any agency policies drafted under its guidance.
That may be baffling. But part of the larger picture is that Trump's own OSTP in his first term drafted a memo similar to the Nelson Memo. It too would have strengthened the federal OA policies by eliminating the embargo.
https://slate.com/technology/2020/02/academic-publishing-market-trump-executive-order.htmlThere may be many reasons why he didn't sign the memo, including the fact that it wasn't finished until near the end of his term when he was caught in impeachment hearings.
🧵
-
1/ The new #NIH #OpenAccess policy takes effect today.
https://grants.nih.gov/policy-and-compliance/policy-topics/public-accessHere are a few notable points about the policy.
The NIH has had a mandatory OA policy since 2008. The new policy is a strengthened version that eliminates the permissible embargo. The policy now requires unembargoed or immediate OA, from the date of publication.
https://grants.nih.gov/faqs#/search/693/embargoThis strengthening was required by the #Biden-era #NelsonMemo from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (#OSTP).
Note that Trump has not revoked or weakened the Nelson Memo even though it came out of the Biden White House and uses #DEI language. Nor has he scuttled or weakened any agency policies drafted under its guidance.
That may be baffling. But part of the larger picture is that Trump's own OSTP in his first term drafted a memo similar to the Nelson Memo. It too would have strengthened the federal OA policies by eliminating the embargo.
https://slate.com/technology/2020/02/academic-publishing-market-trump-executive-order.htmlThere may be many reasons why he didn't sign the memo, including the fact that it wasn't finished until near the end of his term when he was caught in impeachment hearings.
🧵
-
@kfitz Do you accept #PublicDomain works by US government employees? About a million would need to be archived in some place #Unpaywall can find.
https://archive.org/details/@academic_public_domain -
10/ #Trump is doing damage on many fronts, not just the front of open and uncensored research. Are there projects to #crowdsource info on all of that damage? If so, the project on damage to research could be part of that larger project.
I welcome your thoughts.
-
1/ I'm doing what I can to track the actions and positions of the new #Trump admin on open and uncensored research. But it's far more than a one-person job. This is a post on what I'm doing — building up to a call to help find ways to #crowdsource the work.
#Censorship #DefendResearch #OAintheUSA, #OpenAccess #OpenScience #ScholComm #Takedowns #Universities
🧵
-
New study: "Despite having a #repository mandate since 2016, #NSF #compliance rates remain low."
https://www.iastatedigitalpress.com/jlsc/article/id/17767/ -
@torrentfreak Nice. Do 558,466 PDF files next. 😇
-
Update. This announcement from #CHORUS and #MDPI spreads the same misinformation about the US federal #OpenAccess policies. https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/9226
"The [#NelsonMemo]…shifts library budgets towards supporting #OpenAccess publishing, necessitating reallocation of funds traditionally spent on subscriptions to support the funding of article processing charges (#APCs)."
It necessitates nothing of the kind. The policies require #GreenOA, not APC-based #GoldOA.
-
Kudos to @sparc for its excellent comments on the draft upgrade to the #NIH #OpenAccess policy.
https://sparcopen.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/NIH-Policy-RFI-SPARC-Response.pdf"We encourage the agency to clearly communicate…that there is a no-cost compliance option…We…hear from our member institutions that many on their campuses mistakenly assume that compliance…requires the payment of a publishing fee to a journal."
"We recommend that NIH…explicitly authorize the public to fully #reuse publications resulting from its research."
-
Over at Bluesky, I'm responding to the false claim that complying with the new #NIH #OpenAccess policy will require authors to pay #APCs.
https://bsky.app/profile/dacrotty.bsky.social/post/3kw5rw5ooa32sNote that my reply covers the other emerging federal-agency OA policies under the #NelsonMemo.
As the thread winds down, I might copy it here in Mastodon. Meantime you can follow it over there.
-
The National Institutes of Health (#NIH) is calling for public comments on its draft new #OpenAccess policy. The NIH has had a mandatory OA policy since 2008. The new policy will strengthen the old one and live up to the 2022 #NelsonMemo from the #Biden White House.
https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2024-10279.pdfComments are due by August 19, 2024.
-
The US Social Security Administration (#SSA) is calling for public comments on its draft #OpenAccess policy for living up to the #OSTPMemo (aka #NelsonMemo).
https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2024-10279.pdf -
#OpenAccess colleagues (continued): Please consider signing this call on US federal funding agencies to use the existing federal-purpose license to bring clarity, certainty, and #reuse rights to federal OA policies. I just did.
https://sites.google.com/ucop.edu/the-right-to-deposit/statement -
Eddie Bernice Johnson died on Dec 31, 2023. She was the first registered nurse elected to Congress & the first African American woman elected from Dallas. She was the chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
She was a champion of federal #OpenAccess policies. See e.g. the letter she wrote with Frank Lukas to Arati Prabhakar, Alondra Nelson's successor, who took on responsibility for implementing the #OSTPMemo (aka #NelsonMemo).
https://web.archive.org/web/20221019145140/https://science.house.gov/imo/media/doc/ostp_letter_research_access.pdf -
0/ I've been asked to repost this 2019 Twitter thread here on #Mastodon. Glad to oblige.
https://twitter.com/petersuber/status/1207683104971743232 -
Update. Here's another piece asserting "The 2022 [#OSTP or #Nelson] memo requires the publication model to transition to what’s called gold #OpenAccess [in which] the cost of publication is levied against the authors as article processing charges or #APCs."
https://www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/policy/121423/can-science-publishing-be-both-open-and-equitableIt's wrong that all OA journals charge APCs, wrong that all paid APCs are paid by authors, and wrong that the #NelsonMemo requires journal-based or #GoldOA. It requires repository-based or #GreenOA.
-
In a new report to Congress, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (#OSTP) reiterates the #NelsonMemo principle that “Financial means and privileged access must never be the pre-requisites to realizing the benefits of federally funded research that the American public deserves.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Open-Access-Publishing-of-Scientific-Research.pdf -
An important new project:
https://sparcopen.org/news/2023/us-repository-network-launches-pilot-to-enhance-discoverability-of-open-access-content-in-repositories/"In November, the US Repository Network (#USRN) will launch a pilot project aimed at improving the #discoverability of articles in #repositories. This pilot project involves the use of services from #CORE, a not-for-profit aggregator based at Open University in the UK."
-
The US National Science Foundation (#NSF) is calling for public comments on its updated #OpenAccess policy.
https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2023-25267.pdfThis is a preprint version of the RFI. The final version will appear later today at this URL:
https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2023-25267/request-for-information-public-access-plan-20-ensuring-open-immediate-and-equitable-access-toUPDATE: The final version is now online at the second URL above.
-
"Today’s announcements from the #Biden #Cancer Moonshot include...a new 'biomedical #data fabric toolbox' to advance cancer research progress. ARPA-H is partnering with the National Institutes of Health (#NIH), the National Cancer Institute (#NCI), and other agencies to develop a new Biomedical Data Fabric Toolbox for Cancer. Starting with cancer datasets, this program represents the first step toward transforming data accessibility across all medical domains..."
-
Effects of the #OpenAccess mandate at the US Department of Energy (#DOE): "Articles subject to the mandate were not cited more frequently by other academic papers" but were cited 42% more often in #patents, which the authors take as a "proxy for technological development." Among the "primary beneficiaries" of the policy were "small firms" or those "with historically low access to scientific research."
https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(23)01817-5 -
Good letter from the Fully OA group of publishers opposing the attempt to cut off funding to implement the #OSTP #OpenAccess policies.
https://fullyoapublishers.org/2023/08/07/the-fully-oa-group-respond-to-the-house-appropriations-committee/ -
Update. The US Department of #Energy (#DOE) just issued a call for public comments on its own draft plan to live up to the August 2022 #OSTP memo (#NelsonMemo).
https://www.energy.gov/articles/us-department-energy-releases-plan-ensure-free-immediate-and-equitable-access-federally -
The US is rejoining #UNESCO (which it quit under #Trump).
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20230612-us-plans-to-rejoin-unesco-from-july-ending-membership-disputeAlthough the US is already strengthening its #OpenAccess policies under the #OSTP #NelsonMemo, renewing its participation in UNESCO is a good opportunity to join 193 other member states in endorsing UNESCO's November 2021 #OpenScience recommendations.
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379949.locale=en -
#NASA is calling for public comments on strengthening its #OpenAccess policy to live up to the Nelson memo.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/05/18/2023-10643/request-for-information-nasa-public-access-plan-for-increasing-access-to-the-results-of -
#arXiv, @biorxivpreprint, and @medrxivpreprint have released their public comments on the the #OSTP #NelsonMemo.
From arXiv
https://info.arxiv.org/about/OSTP-04-11-2023.htmlFrom bioRxiv and medRxiv
https://connect.biorxiv.org/news/2023/04/11/ostp_responsePS: There's a distinct echo of #Plan_U in these comments, tho without using the term. I'm glad to see it's still alive. Here's some background from 2019.
http://planu.org/ -
#arXiv, @biorxivpreprint, and @medrxivpreprint have released their public comments on the the #OSTP #NelsonMemo.
From arXiv
https://info.arxiv.org/about/OSTP-04-11-2023.htmlFrom bioRxiv and medRxiv
https://connect.biorxiv.org/news/2023/04/11/ostp_responsePS: There's a distinct echo of #Plan_U in these comments, tho without using the term. I'm glad to see it's still alive. Here's some background from 2019.
http://planu.org/ -
@arxiv, @biorxivpreprint, and @medrxivpreprint have released their public comments on the #OSTP #NelsonMemo.
From arXiv
https://info.arxiv.org/about/OSTP-04-11-2023.htmlFrom bioRxiv and medRxiv
https://connect.biorxiv.org/news/2023/04/11/ostp_responsePS: There's a distinct echo of #Plan_U in these comments, tho without using the term. I'm glad to see it's still alive. Here's some background from 2019.
http://planu.org/ -
#arXiv, @biorxivpreprint, and @medrxivpreprint have released their public comments on the the #OSTP #NelsonMemo.
From arXiv
https://info.arxiv.org/about/OSTP-04-11-2023.htmlFrom bioRxiv and medRxiv
https://connect.biorxiv.org/news/2023/04/11/ostp_responsePS: There's a distinct echo of #Plan_U in these comments, tho without using the term. I'm glad to see it's still alive. Here's some background from 2019.
http://planu.org/ -
@arxiv, @biorxivpreprint, and @medrxivpreprint have released their public comments on the #OSTP #NelsonMemo.
From arXiv
https://info.arxiv.org/about/OSTP-04-11-2023.htmlFrom bioRxiv and medRxiv
https://connect.biorxiv.org/news/2023/04/11/ostp_responsePS: There's a distinct echo of #Plan_U in these comments, tho without using the term. I'm glad to see it's still alive. Here's some background from 2019.
http://planu.org/