Response on NIH public access policy | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

"As journal publishing models have shifted in recent decades, often to APC models, AAAS has  advocated publishing approaches that do not place the cost burden on the researcher. However, AAAS also urges NIH to consider the unintended consequences of immediately capping APC fees — a part of the publishing landscape built to wider use over two decades. As properly deployed, APC fees support robust peer review; validation checks around critical features of a paper; and implementation of standards related to discoverability of work in perpetuity. Publishing that requires investment in this way is integral to the process by which Gold Standard Science is achieved — and by which taxpayers’ original investments are multiplied. To immediately cap APCs risks turning publishers focused on quality into those that may need to focus on quantity, which doesn’t serve NIH’s goals.

Based on research into tradeoffs scientists make to pay APC fees, and based on AAAS’ experience operating five green open access journals (which don’t charge authors fees to make work freely available), we believe it is time for the scientific enterprise to commit to approaches to public access that are funded from sources other than author fees, all the while prioritizing the highest taxpayer return. Of the options NIH presented in its Request for Information, AAAS recommends option 4, which would put an upper limit on publication costs as a proportion of the overall grant, as the best short-term strategy. This option balances concerns about cost to publish with the flexibility to choose a journal the author deems best (ideally one focused on quality). However, in the long term, AAAS encourages NIH to work actively with publishers to incentivize exploration of non-APC-based approaches — or to revisit existing ones, like green open access — while keeping quality-oriented outputs that bolster “Gold Standard Science” as a focus. AAAS further recommends that NIH policy supports American publishers, when aligned with quality and cost goals, to help ensure that publishers informed by American standards of scientific excellence continue to be arbiters of quality in the global landscape."