JOINIn response to a Nature News request for comment on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s proposed revisions to U.S. federal funding regulations affecting publication and dissemination of federally funded research, STM CEO Caroline Sutton said:
“We remain baffled by the idea that publishing research could be seen as anything other than central to agency goals. Research only delivers public value when it is published and shared in forms and formats that enable impact. Publication costs (around ~1% of total research investment) support the systems and expertise that ensure high-quality research is trusted, accessible, and usable. Removing or restricting that support doesn’t save money; it risks weakening U.S. scientific competitiveness, adding bureaucracy, and undermining the independent exchange of ideas that underpins high-quality research.
We are also surprised that the government wouldn’t want funded researchers to have access to high-quality validated information to inform their research. Access to the trusted scholarly record makes sure researchers can build on existing knowledge, rather than going down known dead ends or wasting time recreating what is already known.
Taken together with restrictions on publication costs, limiting the use of federal funds for journal subscriptions undermines the essential infrastructure that makes research discoverable, accessible, and usable. Libraries and access systems are how researchers, clinicians, and policymakers engage with the evidence. Weakening both the ability to publish and the ability to access research risks eroding the knowledge engine that delivers the value of publicly funded science.”
STM is continuing to engage members to comment and urges others to do so ahead of the deadline of July 13.