The National Institutes of Health said it will impose a ceiling on what scholarly publishers can charge researchers to make NIH-funded studies immediately accessible to the public, beginning in fiscal year 2026. The announcement, released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, aims to curb rising article-processing charges and ensure taxpayers are not effectively paying twice for research they have already financed. Publishers currently levy open-access fees as high as $13,000 per article while also collecting subscription payments from government agencies, according to NIH. "Creating an open, honest, and transparent research atmosphere is a key part of restoring public trust in public health," NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement accompanying the policy. The fee cap builds on a June 23, 2025 rule that barred investigators from using NIH money to pay extra for embargo-free deposits of manuscripts in PubMed Central. Taken together, the measures are intended to expand public access to federally sponsored science while constraining costs across the $48-billion-a-year NIH research portfolio. Detailed guidance on the exact fee limits is expected before the 2026 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, 2025.