Trump Reportedly Cuts Funding for Publisher of Prestigious Nature Journals and Scientific American Magazine

Staff break rooms in federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health could soon become much less interesting. According to an Axios reportThe Trump Administration has canceled funding and contracts at Springer Nature, including payments for subscriptions to the company’s publications, which include Scientific American Magazine and research reviews revised by peers as part of the Nature Portfolio.

Per axios, the decreases in the total contract amount to millions of funds for the nature of Springer. According to data compiled via American expenses, the data source of information on federal spending, Springer Nature Currently to 19 active contracts with federal agencies, including a $ 5.2 million contract Provide subscriptions to company’s journals.

“We are proud of our history in the communication of American research in the rest of the world for more than a century and continue to have good relations with American federal agencies,” a spokesperson for Springer Nature in Gizmodo. “We are not starting individual contracts, but in our global business, there is no significant change for our customers or their expenses. We remain confident about the strength of the service we provide. ”

Trump’s attack on Springer should not be too shocking. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Justice sent letters to medical journals to be “supporter” in the eyes of the administration, in part to promote “awake” science, such as saying that climate change is real or that trans people exist. Before reports indicated that the chest, a publication to reading committee on pulmonary care published by the American College of Chest Physicians, as well as by Several other publicationsreceived threatening letters accusing them of publishing work influenced by “advertising (under the postal code) or sponsorship (under relevant fraud regulations)”.

Springer also received a letter by Axios. In addition to questioning the editorial practices of the publisher, he also alleged that Springer had links with China and censored information at the request of the Chinese Communist Party. Above the same time, Donald Trump Jr. called on the government’s ministry of efficiency to put an end to contracts with the nature of Springer because he “pushed gender madness”.

Attacing Springer for having published legitimate research that does not correspond to the favorite positions of the administration is a fairly terrible reason to cut access to the information provided by the richness of company journals. But Springer is not without problem. In 2017, the company was accused of having restricted access to certain research in China, and has issues tons of research retraction In recent years due to problems with its peer examination process.

For what it is worth, most of these threatening letters of the DoJ were signed by the American prosecutor Ed Martin, who also threatened to investigate people who criticized Elon Musk And threatened to draw non -profit status from Wikipedia. Martin resigned to this role Last month (and gave the reins to the host of Fox News, Jeanine Pirro of all people). Until now, little comes from these threats, although they undoubtedly have a scary effect on the publishers who have received them, because any judicial challenge from the government would surely be withdrawn and costly.