Journal of Science Policy & Governance
​Volume 22, Issue 01 | March 6, 2023

Op-Ed: Publish, Don’t Perish: Recommendations for Mitigating Impacts of the New Federal Open Access Policy 

Alexander B. Belles (1), Karen E. Beatty (2,3), Claire H. Rodman (4), Charles J. Connolly (5)​
  1. The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University Park, PA
  2. The Pennsylvania State University, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, University Park, PA
  3. The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, University Park, PA
  4. The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University Park, PA
  5. The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Food Science, University Park, PA
​
Corresponding author: clairehumerodman@gmail.com ​
Keywords: open access publishing; open science; academia; scientific research; publication embargo​
https://doi.org/10.38126/JSPG220101 ​

Executive Summary

In August, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a new policy requiring that all federally funded scholarly research be accessible to the public immediately upon publication. While this open access policy will ultimately benefit society by increasing the availability of data and research outputs, it could place a heavy burden on researchers due to the relatively high cost of open access alongside an academic culture that tends to favor publishing in high impact subscription journals. We examine the complexities of the traditional publishing landscape and offer recommendations for agencies, universities, and publishers to mitigate the impacts on researchers. Specifically, we recommend a short-term increase in funding to cover higher publishing costs, but contributions from all stakeholders are needed to facilitate a long-term solution. ​

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Background header image courtesy of plos
Alexander Belles is a 5th year PhD candidate in Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State University. He received his BA in Physics and Mathematics from SUNY Geneseo in 2018 and his MS in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Penn State in 2020. He studies the properties of dust in nearby galaxies using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. 
​
Karen Beatty is a MSc student at Pennsylvania State University in the Ecology program. She is currently studying how waterfowl movement and landscape use changes in response to environmental factors, and she is broadly interested in using applied research and policy to mitigate the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on wildlife. 

Claire Rodman is a 5th year PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering and the Advocacy Committee Co-Chair of the Science Policy Society at Penn State. She earned her BS from Boston University in Biomedical Engineering in 2018, and her MS from Penn State in Mechanical Engineering in 2020. She studies human locomotion using bipedal robotics methods and predictive modeling. 

Charlie Connolly is a PhD student at Pennsylvania State University in the Food Science program. He earned his BS from University of Wisconsin-Madison in Microbiology in 2018, and his MS from Pennsylvania State University in Food Science in 2021. He is working on fungal biomaterials and fungal recombinant protein production. 

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