Major Chinese funder to stop paying fees for 30 pricey open-access journals | Science | AAAS

"In a challenge to open-access publishers, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the world’s largest research institution, has told its researchers it plans to stop paying to publish their papers in dozens of international free-to-read journals it regards as too expensive. High-profile, high-fee journals affected include Nature Communications, Cell Reports, and Science Advances.

CAS, which employs more than 50,000 researchers across some 100 institutes, has yet to publicly announce the new policy, expected to take effect on 1 March. Observers say it is likely aimed at controlling costs and perhaps boosting China’s own journals. Despite CAS’s silence, affected researchers, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about the policy, shared excerpts of messages about it they received from managers at their institutions.

One such excerpt says the draft policy would prevent CAS scientists from using academy funds to pay article-processing charges (APCs), which publishers charge to make research articles free to read immediately when published, for more than 30 journals. All charge at least $5000 per paper, according to another source. Globally the average APC is about $2000, and CAS’s cost threshold means a number of prominent open-access–only journals, including PLOS One and Scientific Reports, remain open to CAS researchers."