China’s top research body has banned its scientists from using government funds to publish in some pricey Western journals, as the country rethinks how much it will pay for foreign prestige.
“For high-fee journals such as Cell Reports, Nature Communications and Science Advances, central government funds may not be used to reimburse article processing charges,” the science and technology office of a Beijing-based CAS institute wrote in an email to staff.
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The email, dated February 13, said the policy aimed to “optimise management of academic publishing, reasonably control article processing charge expenditure and improve the efficiency of research fund use”.
Article processing charges are fees publishers charge authors to make their papers immediately free to read online. This model, known as open access, is now widely used alongside the traditional subscription system, in which readers or libraries pay for access.
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The journals named in the email are among the most prominent – and most expensive – open-access titles in international science. Nature Communications, published by the Europe-based Springer Nature, charges US$7,350 per paper. Science Advances, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, charges US$5,450.