Driven by Coalition S (https://www.coalition-s.org/), many reputable journals are switching over to an open-access model where one pays to publish. Many funding agencies are now requiring their researchers to publish exclusively in open-access journals (notably, Wellcome Trust, NIH) – where potential international collaborators may derive their funding from and are compelled to only publish in open-access journals.

Given that publishing is important in assisting in doctoral student retention (1), that publishing can cost hundreds to thousands of USD (2,3), and that doctoral students are prohibited to use PRESS account money for publication costs; the system is currently geared to set students up to fail. From the last report in 2013, the University spends $15 million on just four publishing companies (4) and since it is likely these companies will soon be entirely moving to an open-access model (e.g. Elsevier is intending to go fully open access by 2021 (5), the University will no longer have to spend money on journal licensing fees.