Open Letter to the AAAS about Science Advances
August 15, 2014
Dear AAAS,
This is an open letter concerning the recent launch of the new open access journal, Science Advances. In addition to the welcome diversification in journal choices for authors looking for open access venues, there are many positive aspects of Science Advances: its broad STEM scope, its interest in cross-disciplinary research, and the offering of fee waivers. While we welcome the commitment of the Association to open access, we are also deeply concerned with the specific approach. Herein, we outline a number of suggestions that are in line with both the current direction that scholarly publishing is taking and the needs expressed by the open access community, which this journal aims to serve.
The first of these issues concerns the licensing terms of the journal articles. The default choice of a non-commercial licence (CC BY-NC) places unnecessary restrictions on reuse and does not meet the standards set out by the Budapest Open Access Initiative. Many large funders, including Research Councils UK and the Wellcome Trust, do not recognise this as an open license. The adoption of CC BY-NC as the default license means that many researchers will be unable to submit to Science Advances if they are to conform to their funder mandates unless they pay for the upgrade to CC BY. There is little evidence that non-commercial restrictions provide a benefit to the progress of scholarly research, yet they have significant negative impact, limiting the ability to reuse material for educational purposes and advocacy. For example, NC-encumbered materials cannot be used on Wikipedia. The non-commercial clause is known to generate ambiguities and uncertainties (see for example, NC Licenses Considered Harmful) to the detriment of scholarly communication. Additionally, there is little robust evidence to suggest that adopting a CC-BY license will lead to income loss for your Association, and the $1,000 surcharge is difficult to justify or defend. The value of the CC BY license is outlined in detail by the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association.
We raise an additional issue with the $1,500 surcharge for articles more than 10 pages in length. In an online-only format, page length is an arbitrary unit that results from the article being read in PDF format. Can the AAAS explain what the additional costs associated with the increased length are that would warrant a 50% increase in APC for an unspecified number of additional digital pages? Other leading open access journals, such as PeerJ, the BMC series, and PLOS ONE, offer publication of articles with unlimited page lengths. The extra costs create constraints that may adversely incentivize authors to exclude important details of their study, preventing replication and hindering transparency, all of which are contrary to the aims of scholarly publication. Therefore it seems counterproductive to impose this additional charge; it discriminates against researchers’ best effort to communicate their findings with as much detail as necessary.
We feel that the proposed APCs and licencing scheme are detrimental to the AAAS and the global academic community. As such, we recommend that Science Advances:
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Offers CC BY as standard for no additional cost, in line with leading open access publishers, so authors are able to comply with respective funding mandates;
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Provides a transparent calculation of its APCs based on the publishing practices of the AAAS and explains how additional value created by the journal will measure against the significantly high prices paid by the authors;
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Removes the surcharges associated with increased page number;
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Releases all data files under CC0 (with CC BY optional), which has emerged as the community standard for data and is used by leading databases such as Figshare and DataDryad.
We hope that you will consider the points raised above, keeping in mind how best to serve the scientific community, and use Science Advances to add the AAAS to the group of progressive and innovative open access scholarly publishers. We hope AAAS will collaborate with the academic community to facilitate the dissemination of scientific knowledge through a journal committed to fully embracing the principles of Open Access.
We kindly request that you allow your response(s) to be made public along with this letter, and look forward to hearing your response soon.
Signatories (please note that we do not formally represent the institutions listed):
- Jonathan P. Tennant, PhD student, Imperial College London (jonathan.tennant10@imperial.ac.uk, @protohedgehog)
- Timothée Poisot, University of Canterbury (timothee.poisot@canterbury.ac.nz, @tpoi)
- Joseph R. Hancock, Montana State University-Bozeman (joseph.hancock1@msu.montana.edu, @Joe_R_Hancock)
- M Fabiana Kubke, University of Auckland, New Zealand (f.kubke@auckland.ac.nz, @kubke)
- François Michonneau, University of Florida (fmichon@flmnh.ufl.edu, @FrancoisInvert)
- Michael P. Taylor, University of Bristol (dino@miketaylor.org.uk, @MikeTaylor)
- Graham Steel, Open Science, Scotland (steelgraham7@gmail.com, @McDawg)
- Jérémy Anquetin, Section d’Archéologie et Paléontologie, Switzerland (j.anquetin@gmail.com, @FossilTurtles)
- Emily Coyte, University of Bristol (emily.coyte@bristol.ac.uk, @emilycoyte)
- Benjamin Schwessinger, UC Davis (bschwessinger@ucdavis.edu, @schwessinger)
- Erin C. McKiernan, independent scientist (emck31@gmail.com, @emckiernan13)
- Tom Pollard, PhD student, University College London (tom.pollard.11@ucl.ac.uk, @tompollard)
- Aimee Eckert, MRes student, Imperial College London (aee13@imperial.ac.uk, @aimee_e27)
- Liz Allen, ScienceOpen, San Francisco (liz.allen@scienceopen.com, @LizAllenSO)
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla, Imperial College London (dalmeets@gmail.com, @DalmeetS)
- Elizabeth Silva, San Francisco (elizabeth.silva@me.com, @lizatucsf)
- Nicholas Gardner, Marshall University (nick.gardner@gmail.com, @RomerianReptile)
- Nathan Cantley, Medical Student, Queens University Belfast (ncantley01@qub.ac.uk, @NathanWPCantley)
- John Dupuis, Librarian, York University, Toronto (jdupuis@yorku.ca, @dupuisj)
- Christina Pikas, Doctoral Candidate, University of Maryland (cpikas@gmail.com, @cpikas)
- Amy Buckland, Librarian, McGill University, Montreal (amy.buckland@mcgill.ca, @jambina)
- Lenny Teytelman, www.zappylab.com, Berkeley, CA (lenny@zappylab.com), @lteytelman)
- Peter Murray-Rust, University of Cambridge, UK (peter.murray.rust@googlemail.com), @petermurrayrust)
- Zen Faulkes, The University of Texas-Pan American, zfaulkes@utpa.edu, @DoctorZen)
- Robert J. Gay, The University of Arizona/Mission Heights Preparatory High School, AZ, USA (paleorob@gmail.com, @paleorob)
- Peter T.B. Brett, University of Surrey, UK (peter@peter-b.co.uk, @PeterTBBrett)
- Anders Eklund, Linköping University, Sweden (andek034@gmail.com, @wandedob)
- Johannes Björk, Institute of Marine Sciences, Barcelona, Spain (bjork.johannes@gmail.com, @AwfulDodger)
- William Gunn, Mendeley, London, UK, william.gunn@mendeley.com, @mrgunn)
- Nitika Pant Pai, McGill University, Montreal, Canada (nitika.pai@mcgill.ca) @nikkiannike
- Philippe Desjardins-Proulx, Ph.D. student (philippe.d.proulx@gmail.com, @phdpqc).
- Joshua M. Nicholson, PhD candidate Virginia Tech, VA and founder The Winnower, VA (jnicholson@thewinnower.com, @thewinnower)
- Scott Edmunds, GigaScience, BGI Hong Kong (scott@gigasciencejournal.com, @SCEdmunds)
- Steven Ray Wilson, University of Oslo (stevenw@kjemi.uio.no, @stevenRayOslo)
- Stuart Buck, Vice President of Research Integrity, Laura and John Arnold Foundation (sbuck@arnoldfoundation.org, @stuartbuck1)
- B. Arman Aksoy, Ph.D. student, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (arman@cbio.mskcc.org, @armish)
- Nazeefa Fatima, University of Huddersfield, UK (nazeefafatima@msn.com, @NazeefaFatima)
- Ross Mounce, University of Bath, UK (rcpm20@bath.ac.uk, @rmounce)
- Heather Piwowar, Impactstory, (heather@impactstory.org), @researchremix
- Avinash Thirumalai, Ph.D student, East Tennessee State University (thirumalai@goldmail.etsu.edu)
- Jason Priem, Impactstory (jason@impactstory.org), @jasonpriem
- Clayton Aldern, University of Oxford, UK (clayton.aldern@gmail.com, @compatibilism)
- Marcus D. Hanwell, Technical Leader, Kitware, Inc., (mhanwell@kitware.com, @mhanwell)
- Kristen L. Marhaver, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Carmabi Foundation (kristenmarhaver@gmail.com, @CoralSci)
- David Michael Roberts, ARC Research Associate, University of Adelaide (david.roberts@adelaide.edu.au)
- Brian Hole, Ubiquity Press, UK (brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com, @ubiquitypress)
- Alexander Grossmann, University of Applied Sciences Leipzig, Germany and co-founder of ScienceOpen, Berlin/Boston (alexander.grossmann@htwk-leipzig.de, @SciPubLab)
- David L.Vaux, Assistant Director, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Australia (vaux@wehi.edu.au)
- John Murtagh, Repository Manager, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine @LSHTMlibrary
- Alecia Carter, University of Cambridge, UK (ac854@cam.ac.uk, @alecia_carter)
- Alex O. Holcombe, University of Sydney (alex.holcombe@sydney.edu.au, @ceptional)
- Ignacio Torres Aleman, Cajal Institute, Madrid. Spain. (torres@cajal.csic.es)
- Sarah Molloy, Research Support Manager, Queen Mary University of London (s.h.molloy@qmul.ac.uk, @moragm23)
- John Lamp, Deakin University, Australia (john.lamp@deakin.edu.au, @johnwlamp)
- Matthew Todd, The University of Sydney and Open Source Malaria, matthew.todd@sydney.edu.au)
- Anusha Seneviratne, Imperial College London (anushans@hotmail.com, @anushans)
- Guido Guidotti, Harvard University (guidotti@fas.harvard.edu)
- Joseph McArthur, Assistant Director, Right to Research Coalition(Joe@RighttoResearch.org, @mcarthur_joe)
- Carlos H. Grohmann, University of São Paulo, Brazil (guano@usp.br)
- Jan de Leeuw, University of California Los Angeles, (deleeuw@stat.ucla.edu)
- Jung H. Choi, Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology (jung.choi@biology.gatech.edu)
- Ernesto Priego, Centre for Information Science, City University London, UK (Ernesto.Priego.1@city.ac.uk)
- Brian Pasley, University of California, Berkeley (bpasley@berkeley.edu)
- Stacy Konkiel, Impactstory.org (stacy@impactstory.org), @skonkiel)
- Elizabeth HB Hellen, Rutgers University (hellen@dls.rutgers.edu)
- Raphael Levy, University of Liverpool (rapha@liverpool.ac.uk)
- Paul Coxon, University of Cambridge (prc39@cam.ac.uk)
- Nitika Pant Pai, McGill University, Montreal, Canada (nitika.pai@mcgill.ca)
- David Carroll, Queen’s University Belfast (carroll.davide@gmail.com, @davidecarroll)
- Jacinto Dávila, Universidad de Los Andes (jacinto.davila@gmail.com, @jacintodavila)
- Marco Arieli Herrera-Valdez, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (mahv13@gmail.com, @brujonildo)
- Juan Pablo Alperin, Simon Fraser University, Canada (juan@alperin.ca)
- Jan P. de Ruiter, Bielefeld University (jan.deruiter@uni-bielefeld.de, @JPdeRuiter)
- Xianwen Chen, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (xianwen.chen@nmbu.no, @xianwen_chen)
- Jeanette Hatherill, Librarian, University of Ottawa, Canada (jeanette.hatherill@uottawa.ca, @jeanetteanneh)
- Katharine Mullen, University of California Los Angeles (katharine.mullen@stat.ucla.edu)
- Pedro Bekinschtein, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina (pbekinschtein@fmed.uba.ar; @pedrobek)
- Quentin Groom, Botanic Garden Meise, Belgium (quentin.groom@br.fgov.be, @cabbageleek)
- Karen Meijer-Kline, Librarian, Simon Fraser University, Canada (kmeijerk@sfu.ca, @kmeijerkline)
- Pietro Gatti-Lafranconi, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, UK (pg356@cam.ac.uk, @p_gl)
- Jeffrey Hollister, USEPA, Narragansett, RI (hollister.jeff@epa.gov, @jhollist)
- Lachlan Coin, University of Queensland and founder of Academic Karma (l.coin@academickarma.org @AcademicKarma )
- MooYoung Choi, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Korea (mychoi@snu.ac.kr)
- Oscar Patterson-Lomba, Harvard School of Public Health (opatters@hsph.harvard.edu)
- Rowena Ball, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (Rowena.Ball@anu.edu.au)
- Daniel Swan, Oxford Gene Technology, UK (Daniel.Swan@ogt.com @DrDanielSwan)
- Stephen Curry, Imperial College London, UK (s.curry@imperial.ac.uk, @Stephen_Curry)
- Abigail Noyce, Boston University (anoyce@bu.edu, @abbynoyce)
- Jordan Ward, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA (jordan.ward@ucsf.edu, @Jordan_D_Ward)
- Ben Meghreblian, criticalscience.com, London, UK (benmeg@benmeg.com, @benmeg)
- Ethan P. White, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA (ethan.white@usu.edu, @ethanwhite)
- Sean R. Mulcahy, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA (mulcahy@berkeley.edu, @srmulcahy)
- Sibele Fausto, University of São Paulo, Brazil (sifausto@usp.br @sibelefausto)
- Lorena A. Barba, George Washington University (labarba@gwu.edu @LorenaABarba)
- Ed Trollope, Director, Things We Don’t Know CIC (contact@thingswedontknow.com, @TWeDK)
- Stephen Beckett, Ph.D. student, University of Exeter (S.J.Beckett@exeter.ac.uk, @BeckettStephen)
- Andrew D. Steen, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (asteen1@utk.edu, @drdrewsteen)
- Mari Sarv, Estonian Literary Museum (mari@folklore.ee, @kaskekanke)
- Noam Ross, Ph.D. Candidate, Ecology, University of California-Davis (nmross@ucdavis.edu, @noamross)
- Erika Amir, Geologist, Massachusetts, USA (erika.amir@gmail.com, @geoflier)
- Martin Paul Eve, University of Lincoln (meve@lincoln.ac.uk, @martin_eve)
- Franco Cecchi, University of Florence (francocecchi337@gmail.com)
- Jason B. Colditz, University of Pittsburgh (colditzjb@gmail.com, @colditzjb)
- Philip Spear, postdoc, Northwestern University (philspear@northwestern.edu)
- Mythili Menon, University of Southern California (mythilim@usc.edu, @mythmenon)
- Matthew Clapham, University of California Santa Cruz (mclapham@ucsc.edu,@meclapham)
- Karl W. Broman, University of Wisconsin–Madison (kbroman@biostat.wisc.edu, @kwbroman)
- Graham Triggs, Symplectic (graham@symplectic.co.uk, @grahamtriggs)
- Tom Crick, Cardiff Metropolitan University (tcrick@cardiffmet.ac.uk, @DrTomCrick)
- Diano F. Marrone, Wilfrid Laurier University (dmarrone@wlu.ca)
- Joseph Kraus, Librarian, University of Denver (joseph.kraus@du.edu, @OAJoe)
- Steven Buyske, Rutgers University (buyske@stat.rutgers.edu)
- Gavin Simpson, University of Regina (gavin.simpson@uregina.ca)
- Colleen Morgan, University of York (colleen.morgan@york.ac.uk @clmorgan)
- Kara Woo, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, UC Santa Barbara (woo@nceas.ucsb.edu, @kara_woo)
- Mathew Wedel, Western University of Health Sciences (mathew.wedel@gmail.com)
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
August 16, 2014 at 7:34 am
The AMS proposes two gold OA journals under the same scheme, more or less, i.e. CC-BY-NC and 1500$ per article.
August 17, 2014 at 11:00 pm
Maybe I don’t understand the issue, but here’s one reason that the CC-BY-NC requirement seems reasonable for a journal.
Suppose the Journal_of_Science has an on-line service that charges $1000 per year for access to its articles. Many libraries and universities pay this fee, and it accounts for a fair fraction of the Journal’s income. They publish articles with CC-BY.
I create a script which watches their web site, scrapes it for all the articles within one hour of their publication, and copies them onto my own Bargain-Bin-of-Science website. I charge only $500 per year to access my website. Since the content is identical, yet the price is much lower, all the customers leave the Journal and switch to my service.
Am I missing something?
August 17, 2014 at 11:28 pm
What you’re missing is that if Journal_of_Science publishes its articles CC By — or indeed CC By-NC — then they can’t charge $1000 per year for access. Once something is published under a CC licence, it’s out there, forever and for everyone. That’s the whole point of those licences.
August 17, 2014 at 11:54 pm
So, um, if a journal can’t charge money in exchange for access to articles, how does it pay for itself?
I’m all for open access, and I submit my own work to arXiv as well as to journals. At the same time, I admit that organized journals do serve some useful purpose; organizing peer review, for example, and providing long-term access to publications. If journals can’t charge for access to their materials, then many of them will go out of business, right?
I can hear many readers of this blog cheering, “Yeah! Yeah! Drive the bastards out of business! Take it to the man!” That’s fine, I guess, but if what you want is to kill the journals, wouldn’t it be better to say “Let’s kill the journals!,” instead of “Let’s ask the journals to adopt a business practice which will cause their demise?”
If a journal does adopt CC-BY, then it can’t very well charge a fee for access, as you have stated. In that case, the only source of income for it is to charge authors (higher) fees for publication. Is that the idea here — asking the AAAS to increase the page charges for its articles, while dropping the subscription fees?
I guess one could argue that the AAAS should increase its membership fee to underwrite the costs associated with publishing articles. Is that the goal?
Again, let me say that I am annoyed at publishers, and I would prefer to use a system of disseminating results which avoided them. But until someone else sets up a working peer-review and long-term archiving system, I don’t think I want to destroy the journals entirely.
August 18, 2014 at 12:09 am
You’re not familiar with Gold open access? It’s what allows PLOS to run at a healthy operating profit despite making all its articles freely available to be used for any purpose by anyone (subject only the usual requirement of proper attribution).
Precisely. In effect, the journal lives on page charges. (Of course, plenty of subscription journals also levy page charges, but let’s not go down that rabbit hole.
No. In this case, we’re talking about the AAAS’s brand new Gold OA journal, Science Advances. This will have no subscription cost, and will be truly open (hurrah!) but has insanely high APCs — $5500 for a ten-page truly open article compared with $1350 at PLOS ONE, $250 at one of Ubiquity’s journals or $99 at PeerJ. So the problem is that they are very expensive, and that they default to a not-really-open licence and require the author to cough up yet more for a BOAI-compliant open licence.
August 18, 2014 at 12:23 am
Thank you very much for continuing to educate me (and other readers) via the blog and your comments.
I come from a world (astrophysics) in which many of the main journals do charge at both ends (authors pay page charges, AND readers pay subscription fees), so it’s hard for me sometimes to realize how things work in your happier world.
August 18, 2014 at 12:31 am
And thank you, Michael, for the timely reminder not to take for granted that everyone’s working in a similar environment.
In the arena of Green OA, we biologists envy you guys your awesome subject repo, arXiv. In the world of Gold OA, my impression is that you have far fewer options than we do. Ideally I’d like all fields to have both options, but so long as we find ourselves all in a culture where it’s usual to make work OA by one route or another, that’s good enough for me!
September 2, 2014 at 10:38 am
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