#CancerResearchUK will stop paying #APCs for funded researchers.
https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2026/04/01/why-we-wont-be-funding-open-access-publishing-any-more/
PS. So far, so good. There are strong reasons to move away from APCs. For a summary, see Recommendation 3 of the Budapest Open Access Initiative 20th anniversary statement in 2022. (Disclosure: I was the lead author.)
https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/boai20/#rec-3
Unfortunately the Cancer Research UK announcement is marred by several false assertions and assumptions about #OpenAccess.
* Its narrow decision is to stop funding APCs, but its headline is that it will stop funding OA publishing as such. It leaves the distinct false impression that all OA journals charge APCs.
* Deep in the text it says that OA "hasn't worked. At least not in its current form." That looks like a recognition that not all OA depends on APCs. But it isn't explicit and didn't prevent careless language elsewhere in the statement.
* It never acknowledges that no-APC OA (#DiamondOA) journals exist, let alone that they constitute the majority of OA journals.
* It does acknowledge the existence of no-APC OA through repositories, or #GreenOA. But it falsely suggests that green OA must be embargoed. Just to give one notable set of counter-examples, all the federal OA policies in the US require unembargoed green OA.
#ScholComm
Peter Suber
petersuber
ilkayholt
Walled Culture
