The ethical risks of open-access agreements being used for authorship leverage

Email Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Whatsapp X Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Transformative agreements — contracts between institutions and publishers that help to fund open-access (OA) systems — are widely presented as tools to advance equity in scientific publishing. But they can introduce an integrity risk: access to publishing could be used as academic leverage. Access options Access through your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any time Learn more Subscribe to this journal Receive 51 print issues and online access $199.00 per year only $3.90 per issue Learn more Rent or buy this article Prices vary by article type from $1.95 to $39.95 Learn more Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Nature 651 , 550 (2026) doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00776-6 Competing Interests The authors declare no competing interests. Related Articles NIH-funded science must now be free to read instantly: what you should know How can I publish open access when I can’t afford the fees? UK Royal Society adopts ‘subscribe to open’ publishing model Subjects Publishing Research management Lab life Latest on: Publishing Research management Lab life What a viral TikTok taught me about personal storytelling in science Career Column 06 MAR 26 Under pressure: the reality of Mexico’s research system Spotlight 04 MAR 26 See raining iguanas and coral from the inside out — February’s best science images News 03 MAR 26 Privilege, power and vulnerability in science: precarious funding can prompt unethical ties Correspondence 10 MAR 26 My PhD student is stuck. How do I teach them perseverance and problem solving? Career Feature 09 MAR 26 How Congress can restore the independence of US science Comment 09 MAR 26 Eight common errors I see in PhD applications and interviews, and how to avoid them Career Column 09 MAR 26 My PhD student is stuck. How do I teach them perseverance and problem solving? Career Feature 09 MAR 26 Cracked, but still there: the glass ceiling persists for senior women in science Career Column 06 MAR 26 Jobs Research group leader, Systems Immunology (m/f/d) The Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut is one of the world’s leading research institutes in the field of animal diseases, animal welfare, animal husbandry... Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (DE) Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Bundesforschungsinstitut für Tiergesundheit Postdoctoral Fellow UMass Chan Medical School (FBGao Lab) Post Doc Position to study pathogenic mechanisms of Frontotemporal Dementia using patient iPSC-derived neurons Worcester, Massachusetts (US) Umass Chan Medical School - Fen-Biao Gao Lab Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Warmly Welcomes Talents Abroad Qiushi Chair Professor; Qiushi Distinguished Scholar; ZJU 100 Young Researcher; Distinguished researcher No. 3, Qingchun East Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang (CN) Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital Affiliated with Zhejiang University School of Medicine Talent Recruitment Announcement of the College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University Join Huazhong Agricultural University No.1 Shizishan Street, Hongshan District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU) Seeking Global Talents at All Levels - SIAT We find Distinguished PIs, Senior PIs, Junior PIs, Senior Engineer, Junior Engineer, Post-doctoral fellow, Assistant research fellow. 1068 Xueyuan Avenue, Shenzhen 518055 P. R. China Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences（CAS)