President Donald Trump and his supporters have vocally attacked scientific research institutions, and now his administration is further icing out disseminators of such research. According to an Axios report, the administration is cutting $20 million in grant funding to Springer Nature, a Berlin-based publisher of scientific journals which owns Nature and Scientific American. The grants which were cut had previously funded journal subscriptions from federal employees. Springer Nature’s portfolio includes more than 3,000 journals and seven million published articles. Earlier this year, the Justice Department previewed the move by accusing a Springer publication of wrongfully advocating for certain positions and “acting as a partisan in scientific debates.” In that Justice Department letter, the government also questioned Springer Nature’s ties to China and its history of censoring articles at the behest of Chinese authorities. The cuts to federal funding are likely to affect employees in the departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, and Defense—all of which previously had contracts with Springer worth at least $5 million. In a statement to The Daily Beast, an HHS spokesperson said that “science journals are ripping the American people off with exorbitant access fees and extra charges to publish research openly. HHS is working to develop policies that conserve taxpayer dollars and get Americans a better deal.”
Read it at Axios
