Gates Foundation to End Support for Article Processing Charges

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a new open access policy last week, stating that the non-profit will no longer pay article processing charges and will instead encourage authors to publish their work in preprint journals.

The new policy will take effect January 1, 2025. The foundation, a long-time proponent of open access publishing, said that a “culture shift” is required to ensure “the prioritization of equity and access over prestige and personal interest.”

While APCs make research content free for readers to access, the high fees often make this option available “only to the most well-funded researchers,” the foundation said in a one-pager on its new policy. “New, more equitable models have not gained traction because publishers are slow to change and have pushed back when revenue is threatened,” the foundation asserted.

The foundation’s move was welcomed by cOAlition S, a group of science funders pushing for immediate open access to research publications.

This news brief originally appeared in FYI’s newsletter for the week of April 1.