A U.S. federal mandate to make scholarly papers free to read could triple the government’s bill for publishing fees to $937 million by 2030 — an increase most research agencies aren’t prepared for, says a report released yesterday by Congress’s spending-watchdog agency. The report estimated the potential financial consequences of implementing the so-called Nelson Memo—guidance issued in 2022 under then-President Joe Biden that requires immediate and free public access to taxpayer-funded research papers and data. Most of the agencies had enacted policies to meet this policy by the end of 2025.

Publishers typically charge authors an average of more than $3000 for each article they make immediately free to read, and agencies allow their grantees to charge these costs to their federal grants, GAO said. The increased spending for publishing anticipated by GAO also reflects inflation in public access fees, which GAO extrapolated to future years based on increases in recent years. Agencies need to plan for these increases — and balance them against funding other priorities such as equipment and staffing — because President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for the 2027 fiscal year calls for cuts in research spending, the report suggests.

Source https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-agencies-aren-t-ready-rising-cost-making-research-papers-free-report-warns

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