The US National Institutes of Health has circulated options for restricting how much it will pay to cover article-processing charges when federally funded researchers publish in open-access journals, according to materials discussed in the research community on 9 August. The move follows mounting concern over the size of such fees at leading titles, including Nature, which critics say receives roughly 30 percent of its revenue from US institutional subscriptions underwritten by taxpayer dollars. Some scientists argue the government should go further—either banning the use of federal funds for certain subscriptions or even requiring researchers to reimburse the agency for each paper—to force publishers to adopt lower-cost, fully open models. The NIH has not yet indicated when it will decide on a formal cap.