August 2026 Newsletter
August 2026 Newsletter
Galter Library
By Pamela Shaw
Research Policy Librarian, Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center
Whether you already have a preferred journal or are deciding where to publish, new federal public access requirements may affect your options. In the past, many US federal agencies allowed funded manuscripts to remain behind a journal’s paywall for up to 12 months before being made publicly available in a funder designated repository, such as PMC, NSF-PAR or DoE Pages. Since December 31, 2025, activation of US federal requirements on public access eliminated this embargo period. Authors are now faced with the requirement to place their US funded publications and data in public repositories immediately upon first publication in a journal.
These new requirements do not always align with publishers’ longstanding practices of requiring an embargo period between the publication date and free public access. Publishers have historically used these embargoes to protect subscription revenue, and previous federal policies permitted them. Some publishers are now requiring authors to select – and pay for - a “gold” open access (OA) publishing option to bypass standard embargoes. Article processing charges (APCs) for gold OA vary widely, with some as high as $12,850 per manuscript.
Under current federal code (2 CFR 200.461), grant funds are allowable to pay these APCs, provided they are not levied against an author merely because the author is US agency funded. This federal code is in danger of being rewritten to disallow federal funds to pay for publication costs, so authors may be forced to find alternate means of paying for gold OA. Even if the proposed rule is not passed into law, APCs are so expensive that they will consume too much of investigators’ allowable publishing costs on grants. Authors are placed in the difficult situation of having to pay to bypass embargo in their favorite journals, break federal policy by publishing under an embargo (but for free), or choose another journal in which to publish.
Galter Library offers resources to help authors identify journals that support an affordable path to compliance. One option is “green” open access, in which a journal allows the author to deposit the authors’ accepted manuscript in an appropriate repository and make it publicly available without paying an article processing charge.
However, journals that permit immediate sharing of author accepted manuscripts are relatively uncommon. Another option is gold open access, in which the publisher makes the final article openly available but charges APCs for this option. Northwestern participates in several publishing agreements that cover or reduce the APC for eligible Northwestern authors at participating journals.
These options can help authors comply with funder requirements while limiting publication costs, but they are not available for every journal. Galter continues to help authors evaluate journals and identify appropriate alternatives. This is a difficult undertaking, and sometimes there is not a good low-cost alternative for an expensive journal that is a perfect “fit” for an investigator’s research.
Our new Choosing a Journal for Federally Funded Research class will show participants how to:
The new class and companion GalterGuide build on our original Choosing a Journal GalterGuide, which helps authors evaluate journals based on quality, impact, scope and subject suitability for a researcher’s work.
This class also draws on work by the joint Office for Research / Libraries Public Access Working Group, with representatives from Galter Library, NU Evanston Libraries, the Office for Research, and NUIT Research Computing and Data Services. The group is developing a centralized Northwestern website that will bring together tools and link to Northwestern and external guidance on public access policies for publications and data.
Our goal is to help researchers and research administrators understand federal and publisher policies, evaluate available options, and make informed publishing decisions that support both compliance and the visibility of their research. Whether you are evaluating a longtime preferred journal or searching for a new one, the class, companion GalterGuide, and resources being developed by the working group are designed to help you ask the right questions and find the information you need before submitting your manuscript.
For additional questions on publishing under US federal funder requirements, contact us via our Galter research policy support email: galter-research-policy-support@galter-northwestern.libanswers.com
