The Trump-appointed interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia has sent multiple journal editors letters asserting their publications are "partisans in various scientific debates" and asking for responses to a variety of questions. Meanwhile, the Trump administration plans to cut funding for two open-access, peer-reviewed journals published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) and Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) – according to a leaked draft of an internal 2026 budget proposal for the Department of Health and Human Services.

The prosecutor’s letter makes reference to U.S. regulations, stating that journals have a "position for which they are advocating either due to advertisement (postal code) or sponsorship (under relevant fraud regulations)." It asks journal editors to respond to questions such as "How do you clearly articulate to the public when you have certain viewpoints that are influenced by your ongoing relations with supporters, funders, advertisers, and others?" and "Do you accept articles or essays from competing viewpoints?" Responses are expected by 2 May, it adds. The letter has befuddled some researchers. "The author of the letter seems to misunderstand what scientific research does," says Marcus Munafò, a biological psychologist at the University of Bristol and advocate for research reproducibility and integrity.

Budget plan would kill two CDC journals, while U.S. prosecutor accuses some nongovernmental publications of being "partisans".

 
Source https://www.science.org/content/article/trump-administration-targets-academic-journals-attorney-letter-proposed-funding-cuts

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