Science journals end open-access trial with Gates Foundation

"The publisher of Science last month ended a pilot partnership that allowed open-access (OA) publishing for researchers funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The trial was an effort to accommodate a policy clash between the Gates Foundation, which has enforced strict OA demands since 2017, and publishers that run subscription journals which don’t comply with those terms. So far, 26 papers in Science and four sister subscription journals have been published under the 18-month experiment, and more may appear, says Meagan Phelan, a spokesperson for Science's publisher, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington DC. Neither Gates nor AAAS commented on why the deal ended, but Phelan says the pilot was "planned for a duration that would allow both organizations to closely explore what researchers need and value from journal publications and related services". “We are reviewing the outcomes of our collaboration and remain open to future partnerships,” she adds. The two organizations expect to publish a report on their trial by the end of this year, including results from an open-access survey conducted of Gates-funded authors...."