White House Cuts Nature Journal Subscriptions

The Trump administration has canceled several U.S. science agencies ’ subscriptions to Springer Nature , one of the world’s largest science publishers with more than 3,000 titles, including the prestigious Nature publications. “The decision, which will end easy access to the journals for the agencies’ scientists, follows recent criticism from administration officials who have accused the academic journals of bias ,” Science magazine said on its website. The cuts affecting Springer Nature were first reported by Axios, which did not specify which agencies would be affected . Government officials have given conflicting statements about whether the cuts included the largest subscription deal with the U.S. government, the National Institutes of Health (NIH). An analysis of the USASpending.gov database by Science shows that by early June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Energy had already canceled subscriptions to Springer Nature, for which they had committed $3 million this year. The database shows that as of June 17, at least seven agencies had subscription contracts with Springer Nature, for which they had planned to spend up to $25 million . Of that, about half was for the NIH . Meanwhile, the Trump administration, after protests from NASA, has decided to postpone until July 31 the suspension of access by NASA and NOAA (the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) scientists to satellite data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program , which has collected weather data for the Department of Defense's military operations for more than 50 years . The plan risks leaving the National Hurricane Center without crucial data to deal with the next hurricane season .