German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina | A New Concept for the Direct Funding and Evaluation of Scientific Journals (2025)
« The results of publicly funded science are a public good and should be generally and freely accessible.1 This includes the texts of scientific publications as well as the data, the models, the sofware and the associated analysis procedures on which they are based.
Free access to research results is made possible by making them available on the internet. However, the publication of scientific articles in scientific journals is still largely based on commercial payment models: either through subscriptions, through payment per article (article processing charge – APC) or through transformation contracts (publish and read – PAR fees). This discussion paper deals with the conversion of this current payment system for scientific publications to direct financing at no cost to the users. It focusses on open access publications of scientific articles.
The majority of academic publishing is dominated by a few profit orientated publishers. These publishers have considerable market power, which has led to continuously rising journal prices and APCs, i.e. costs that are ultimately financed by the taxpayer. High private profits are generated in the process. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile the commercial incentives associated with publishing as many articles as possible with the necessary scientific selection and quality assurance. In parallel, publishers have emerged that focus on commercial skimming without quality assurance (paper mills, predatory publishing, etc.).
Scientific publishing should be financed and controlled according to the same general principles used to support publicly funded research. To this end, we are proposing a new funding concept for the operation of scientific journals. (…) »
