Academics at a seminar at the Royal Society have raised concerns over the forthcoming open access policy developed by the government and Research Councils UK.

Frederick Friend, honorary director of scholarly communication at University College London, who spoke at the event on 5 February, said “The UK government’s hasty decision to prioritise open access through the payment [by authors] of article processing charges rather than through long established repositories leaves the UK in an isolated position vis-a-vis open access developments in other countries and with an extra bill for the taxpayer in a time of austerity.

“The UK taxpayer has also lost out through the additional payments to the high profit publishers for …