Publishers split over best route to full open access

Representatives argue for and against different funding models

Scholarly publishers are divided over the best way to bring about full open access to research papers—a question that has plagued policymakers for decades.

On 18 May, a group of eight publishers whose content is already fully open access published a joint statement complaining about the amount of effort being put into so-called ‘transformative agreements’, which generally involve institutions paying mixed-model publishers for both subscription and open-access services.