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Norms Impact

RFK Jr.’s health department calls Nature “junk science,” cancels subscriptions

A federal health department moved to cut scientists off from mainstream journals and branded them “junk science,” setting a precedent for political control over what evidence our government can read.

Executive

Jul 1, 2025

Sources

https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/07/rfk-jr-s-health-department-calls-nature-junk-science-cancels-subscriptions/

Summary

Multiple federal agencies have canceled contracts and subscriptions to Springer Nature journals, including Nature, cutting off scientists’ access to major scientific literature. Leadership within the Department of Health and Human Services framed the cancellations as ending “unused subscriptions to junk science,” aligning federal research access and publication policy with a top official’s public attacks on mainstream journals. The practical consequence is a government workforce less able to track current evidence and publish in high-impact venues, narrowing scientific freedom inside institutions tasked with protecting public health and national capabilities.

Reality Check

When a top federal health department labels leading scientific outlets “junk science” while terminating access across agencies, it normalizes political gatekeeping over the evidence our government is allowed to consult—and that erosion ultimately reaches our own healthcare, safety, and rights. Based on the described conduct, this looks less like a clean criminal fit and more like an abuse-of-office norm break: using institutional control over research infrastructure to punish disfavored information and steer federal science toward “in-house” venues. Even without a clear federal criminal hook on these facts, it advances a dangerous precedent of weaponizing procurement and publication pathways to suppress scientific freedom and reshape public institutions around ideology rather than verifiable evidence.

Media

Detail

Scientists at several federal agencies are losing access to scientific literature published by Springer Nature, including the journal Nature.

Spokespeople for NASA and the US Department of Agriculture confirmed that agency scientists would no longer have access to Springer Nature journals. A USDA spokesperson said it “has cancelled all contracts and subscriptions to Springer Nature,” describing the journals as “exorbitantly expensive” and “not a good use of taxpayer funds.” A government spending database also shows the Department of Energy has dropped contracts with the publisher.

After initial contact suggested the National Institutes of Health would retain access, Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services, later said: “All contracts with Springer Nature are terminated or no longer active,” adding that taxpayer dollars “should be [sic] not be used on unused subscriptions to junk science.” HHS oversees NIH.

The cancellations follow HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s May 27 podcast comments calling leading medical journals “corrupt” and stating the government would “stop NIH scientists from publishing there” and create “in-house” journals.