Update. Here's another piece critical of #APCs (so far, so good), and reviewing other people's criticisms of APCs (even better). Yet it makes the wholly false assertion that all #OpenAccess journals charge APCs. ("In open access, instead of readers having to pay, the paper’s authors cover the expenses of publication.") It says this even though it also summarizes a position explicitly referring to #DiamondOA journals. It never mentions that most OA journals do not charge APCs.
https://undark.org/2026/01/07/apc-science-publishing/

_Environmental Health Perspectives_ was a #DiamondOA journal formerly published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (#NIEHS, within the #NIH). When #Trump slashed the NIH and NIEHS budgets, the journal began the process of laying itself down. But now the American Chemical Society (#ACS) will adopt it. Under the ACS, it will remain #OpenAccess but start charging #APCs.

See the ACS announcement.
https://www.newswise.com/articles/environmental-health-perspectives-joins-the-acs-publications-portfolio

See the coverage in Chemistry World.
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/leading-environmental-health-journal-defunded-by-trump-administration-has-been-saved/4022745.article

#Chemistry #Funding #USPol #USPolitics

Here's another article that made it through peer review (at #WoltersKluwer) falsely asserting that all #OpenAccess journals charge #APCs. dx.doi.org/10.1097/SAP.... (#paywalled) The article never mentions no-fee OA journals ( #DiamondOA ) or no-fee OA repositories ( #GreenOA ). #ScholComm

Update. Here's another article that made it through peer review (at #WoltersKluwer) falsely asserting that all #OpenAccess journals charge #APCs.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/SAP.0000000000004612
(#paywalled)

General thesis: Paying APCs is a hardship (true) and the prices are going up (true). Therefore, to help medical students publish OA, medical schools should fund their APCs.

The article never mentions no-fee OA journals (#DiamondOA) or no-fee OA repositories (#GreenOA).

#ScholComm

From ⁨⁨⁨⁨⁨#AnnafromUkraine⁩⁩⁩⁩⁩ @AnnafromUkraine@youtube.com

#KREMLIN IN PANIC: RUSSIAN MILITARY CONVOYS AND STRATEGIC PLANTS ON FIRE Vlog 1267: War in #Ukraine

Defense Forces destroyed a russian mechanized column of 6 #tanks, 9 #IFVs, 5 #APCs, and 1 armored #recovery #vehicle. In the city of #Budyonnovsk, #Stavropol Krai, #Russia, a chemical #plant, #Stavrolen, is reportedly on fire, denotation continued very long.

#russoUkrainianWar

https://youtu.be/kahnDgbODIM

"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-funding

PS: 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

Diethard Tautz and Paul Rainey propose criteria for journal quality entirely apart from citation impact and reputation. While you think over their proposal, don't overlook their case for some of the ways we'd benefit from having good criteria (no matter who first proposed them):
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1038/s44319-025-00649-5

1. They could help us assess the justification for "public payments for journal services, such as #OpenAccess fees" or #APCs.

2. They could help "immunize against the predatory and fraudulent practices that are currently threatening the scientific publication system."

3. They could help funders "finance journals according to the Diamond open-access [#DiamondOA] standards as a basic infrastructure for science."

#ScholComm

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-hostage

PS: 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

#Funding #Medicine #OAintheUSA #ScholComm

"For Researchers in the Humanities, Is Open Really Fair?"
https://katinamagazine.org/content/article/open-knowledge/2025/for-researchers-in-the-humanities-is-open-really-fair

PS: This article objects to #APCs and "transformative" (#ReadAndPublish) agreements, especially in the humanities. So far, so good. But then it leaves the false impression that all or most #OpenAccess falls into those two categories, which is false and harmful. It never mentions #GreenOA. It mentions #DiamondOA once, for books, and never for articles. It's strong on problems and very weak and even misleading on solutions.

I share the objections to APCs and read-and-publish agreements. I wrote stronger versions of them, extended to all disciplines, for the Budapest Open Access Initiative 20th anniversary statement.
https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/boai20/

I'm in the humanities and (with the exception of one 1999 book) have made all my books and articles OA. I've never paid an APC and never will. I boycott APC-based publishers both as an author and referee and encourage others to do so.

Scholars in the humanities need accurate info about their OA options, not one-sided criticism of OA as such.

#BOAI20 #Humanities

How should you refuse invitations to review manuscripts for journals with exorbitant #APCs? I see a lot of people who post their responses to the editor explaining why they refuse to take part in an unethical business enterprise. But what does this really accomplish?

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.

#APCs #Funders #OAintheUSA #USA

12月17日-19日に、SEMIジャパンが日本最大の半導体産業の展示会 “SEMICON Japan 2025” を開催。東京都江東区・東京ビッグサイトにて。AI x Sustainability x Semiconductor Summit 、Metrology and Inspection Summit #MIS 、Advanced Packaging and Chiplet Summit #APCS 、Advanced Design Innovation Summit #ADIS 、Strategic Materials Conference #SMC を同時開催。詳細は https://www.semiconjapan.org/jp に。
#Semiconductor #Exhibition #SemiconJapan2025

#statstab #432 PsychOpen Gold

Thoughts: instead of submitting to greedy and unhelpful publishers, try this list of fully open and free journals in psychology.

#OpenScience #openaccess #apcs #goldaccess #pedagogy

https://psychopen.eu/

New study: "Open access publishing: is urology ready? A survey of authors, readers, and editorial board’s knowledge, impressions and satisfaction."
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00345-025-05928-3
(#paywalled)

Not a good way to run a survey or report the results.

* The results are paywalled.
* The article does not include the survey questions.
* The survey defines #GoldOA, #GreenOA, #DiamondOA, and #HybridOA. But the article only reports the attitudes toward APC-based gold OA. No surprise, they're negative. Yet disdain for #APCs only strengthens the reason to ask about green and diamond OA. If the survey did ask, then what are the answers? If it didn't ask, then why not?
* The survey gives a false definition of green OA, saying that it's always embargoed. That's especially odd since under current US federal agency policies, it's never embargoed.

#Embargoes #ScholComm

Unclear on the concept

This editorial in a #Wiley journal praises Wiley for promoting equitable #OpenAccess publishing in #LatinAmerica through #ReadAndPublish agreements that discount #APCs in proportion to national GDP.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.71964

PS: To me, equitable OA moves 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 from both APCs and read-and-publish agreements. For the arguments, see the Budapest Open Access Initiative 20th anniversary statement, especially recommendations 3 and 4.
https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/boai20/

#BOAI #BOAI20 #DEI #Publishing #ScholComm

New From the Team at #ScholCommLab NIH Explores Capping #APCs: Let’s Look at the Evidence https://www.scholcommlab.ca/2025/09/03/nih-apc-caps/ #publishing #scholcomm #libraries

The _Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing_ is converting from #hybrid to #APC-based #OpenAccess. One of its motives to escape the #DoubleDipping of the hybrid model. "Although this hybrid approach was well-intentioned, it created a paradoxical situation where institutions pay [and publishers receive] both subscription fees and publication charges."
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10877-025-01342-7

PS: Glad to see it acknowledge the double dipping. Too many hybrid journals don't do that. Next step, escape the inequity and author-side barriers of the APC model.

#APCs #GoldOA #ReadAndPublish #ScholComm #SpringerNature

Urgh. Look at this dodgy journal marketing from IWA Publishing:

No Author Fees*

*No author fees: where institutionally supported, for authors from low-income countries, or for articles with significant societal impact

I think what IWA Publishing meant to say is that YES, this journal does charge author-side fees, but there are some ways in which these author-side fees can be avoided if you meet certain criteria.

DOAJ correctly displays that this journal charges APCs

#OpenAccess #APCs

More transparency is required for #ArticleProcessingCharges #APCs
| The Journal of Academic Librarianship
Elsevier... #OpenAccess... Ironique
Un marché de plusieurs milliards de $
L'essentiel de l'open access, loin devant le modèle diamond
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009913332500103X?dgcid=author