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Funder Public Access Policies: Overview

This guide provides information and resources on federal research funding agencies' public access policies as outlined in the 2013 Office of Science and Technology Policy Public Access Directive.

Background

Research funding agencies are increasingly implementing public access mandates that require researchers to make peer-reviewed, published articles and data derived from funded research available to the public as a matter of grant compliance. The terms and compliance of each mandate are set by the initiating agency.

In a February 2013 memorandum, Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research, the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director John Holdren directed federal agencies to develop plans to make the publications resulting from federally funded research freely available to the public within one year of publication. The memorandum also required researchers to better account for and manage the digital data resulting from federally funded scientific research with the goal of making these data publicly accessible, as well.

The memorandum is directed to the heads of executive departments and agencies with over $100 million in annual extramural R&D budgets to develop a public access plan for the results of research–meaning scientific publications and digital scientific data–directly arising from their funds. Federal funding agencies started rolling out their implementation plans in 2014.

Non-compliance could result in the loss of funding.

In August 2022, the OSTP issued a new memorandum, Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research, along with a press release, OSTP Issues Guidance to Make Federally Funded Research Freely Available Without Delay. All federal funding agencies with research and development expenditures are required to implement updated public access policies by December 31, 2025. This guide will be updated to reflect changes as agencies address these requirements. See the 2022 OSTP Updated Guidance tab on this guide for more information.

Federal Funding Agencies

The following list of federal agencies is subject to the 2013 Public Access Plan requirement. Details about the implementation plans by each agency regarding articles and data may be found either by clicking the agency below or scrolling. Information regarding the 2022 memo as described above are in development.

Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ)

Implementation plan; effective October 2015

Articles: Authors will be required to deposit publications in the PubMed Central database with a maximum 12 month embargo.

Data: Data Management Plan (DMP) required. Data will be submitted to a commercial repository.

Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR)

ASPR Implementation Plan is no longer available; in its stead, see Guiding Principles and Common Approach for Enhancing Public Access to the Results of Research Funded by Health and Human Services Operating Divisions; effective October 2015

Articles: Authors will be required to deposit publications in the PubMed Central database with a maximum 12 month embargo.

Data: Data Management Plan (DMP) required. In-scope digital scientific data sets resulting from research projects must be deposited in a recognized scientific data repository capable of long-term preservation of the data and open access to the public within 30 months from the creation of the data set or upon publication of a peer reviewed publication based on the data set, whichever is sooner.

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)

Implementation Plan; effective October 2015

Articles: Authors must submit final, peer-reviewed journal manuscripts to the CDC Stacks repository using the National Institute of Health Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system, upon acceptance of the manuscript with a maximum 12 month embargo.

Data: Data Management Plan (DMP) required. Minimal data must be released at the time of article publication, with more detailed data released according to CDC standard research data release timeline; all data intended for release, regardless of publication, should be made accessible within 30 months of the end of data collection. Researchers should use the repositories available to them, including the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) or CDC WONDER.

Department of Defense (DOD)

Implementation plan and FAQ; in pilot as of January 2016

Articles: Authors must submit final, peer-reviewed journal manuscripts to the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) system upon acceptance for publication with a maximum 12 month embargo.

Data: Data Management Plan (DMP) required. Digitally formatted scientific data sets should be stored and publicly accessible to search, retrieve, and analyze; publicly releasable primary data, samples, and other supporting materials created or gathered in the course of work should be publicly accessible at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time.

Department of Energy (DOE)

Implementation plan; effective October 2014

Articles: Discoverability and access to version of record publications will be made possible through the portal and search interface tool, the Public Access Gateway for Energy and Science (PAGES), and in cases where the publisher-hosted version of record is not publicly accessible, the DOE will provide access to accepted manuscripts in publicly accessible repositories, of which the DOE’s OSTI repository may be one. Institutional repositories such as KU ScholarWorks may also be used to satisfy the full text hosting requirement. Maximum 12 month embargo.

Data: Data Management Plan (DMP) required. Individual offices may have different requirements for storage and public access, notably the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) which has not yet released its requirements.

Department of Transportation (DOT)

Implementation plan; effective January 2016

Articles: Authors must submit final, peer-reviewed journal manuscripts to the National Transportation Library Digital Repository upon acceptance for publication with a maximum 12 month embargo.

Data: Data Management Plan (DMP) required. See plan for further details.

*see also "How to Comply"

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Implementation plan; effective October 2015

Articles: Authors will be required to deposit final peer-reviewed versions of articles in the PubMed Central database with a maximum 12 month embargo.

Data: Data Management Plan (DMP) required. Researchers are expected to make data accessible in discipline specific repositories, where available, at the time of article publication.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Implementation plan; effective October 2015

Articles: Publications will be made available through a NASA-branded portal to the National Institute of Health’s PubMed Central (PMC) platform, following the NASA-sponsored author’s submission of an exact copy of the as-accepted manuscript or the publisher-transmitted copy of the Version of Record with a maximum 12 month embargo.

Data: Data Management Plan (DMP) required. The requirement for public access to sharable data may be met by including data with the publication as supplementary material, through NASA archives, or through other means, and means of access should be indicated in the published article.

National Institutes of Health

Implementation Plan; effective December 2015

Articles: Authors must submit final, peer-reviewed journal manuscripts to PMC with a maximum 12 month embargo. For more detail, see the NIH tab on this guide.

Data: Data Management Plan (DMP) required. While data may be deposited in any of the many already existing public repositories, using community standards of data collection and description, NIH is also funding the development of a data discovery index, and will continue to explore the development of a data commons.

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Implementation Plan; effective October 2015

Articles: Authors must submit either the version of record or the final accepted peer-reviewed manuscript upon acceptance for publication, plus the associated public access archive system metadata through NIST’s PMC interface, all of which should be publicly available within 12 months of publication.

Data: An ‘effective’ Data Management Plan (DMP) is required. Data should be made available 12 months following publication of the associated article.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Implementation Plan; effective January 2016

Articles: Authors must submit the final accepted peer-reviewed manuscript upon acceptance for publication to the NOAA Institutional Repository to be made publicly available within 12 months.

Data: Data Sharing Plan will be required. Data must be made available with article publication for supporting data, or within one year of collection for other data. NOAA will employ short term access solutions such as SHARE and participation in developing an interagency Research Data Commons based on FAIR principles in addition to long term preservation at NOAA data centers.

National Science Foundation (NSF)

Implementation Plan; effective January 2016

Articles: Authors must submit either the version of record or the final accepted peer-reviewed manuscript to the NSF Public Access Repository (NSF-PAR) no later than 12 months after initial publication.

Data: A 2-page Data Management Plan (DMP) is required. “All data resulting from the research funded by the award, whether or not the data support a publication, should be deposited at the appropriate repository as explained in the DMP.”

Smithsonian Institute (SI)

Implementation Plan; effective October 2015

Articles: An electronic copy or link to such copy of either the version of record or the final accepted peer-reviewed manuscript must be submitted to Smithsonian-managed or approved repositories after a 12 month (or other negotiated) embargo following official publication date. Implementation will be managed through Smithsonian Research Online (SRO) and Clearinghouse for Open Research of the United States (CHORUS).

Data: Data Management Plan (DMP) required as per Smithsonian Directive 610. Digital research data supporting publications must be submitted via an electronic copy or link to such copy to Smithsonian-managed or approved repositories. Data may be submitted to SRO or be deposited in an approved external, community-supported or discipline-specific repository, or via CHORUS.

US Agency for International Development (USAID)

Implementation Plan: N/A

Articles: N/A

Data: The Development Data Library (DDL) is one part of the strategy to increase public access to data as outlined in Automated Directives System Chapter 579. Researchers may submit data to DDL, or if it is submitted to another repository, must submit a notice to the DDL, providing details on where and how to access the data. For more information see "Announcing USAID's Open Data Policy" on the USAID Impact Blog.

US Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Implementation plan; effective January 2016

Articles: Effective January 2016, authors of publications accepted for publication on or after this date will submit to the USDA Public Access Archive System (PubAg) all final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts once the manuscript is accepted for publication, or the final published article, provided the author has the right to submit the published version. The provided article will be have a maximum 12 month embargo.

Data: Phased approach, with mainstream implementation targeted for 2016-2017 and Data Management Plan (DMP) to be required, likely starting January 2016. USDA will support a registry of datasets, and are continuing to explore other repository options.

US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Implementation plans; effective October 2015

Articles: Authors will be required to deposit publications in the PubMed Central database upon acceptance of publication, and make available within 12 months of publication.

Data: Clinical Trial information will continue to be submitted to and be available at ClinicalTrials.gov. For other types of digital research data, a Data Management Plan (DMP) is required and, “VA will seek partnerships with HHS, NIH, FDA, and DoD to identify and share effective mechanisms” for public accessibility under both open and controlled access conditions.

Head, Scholarly Communication & Copyright

Acknowledgement

This guide is based on the excellent guides from Columbia University Libraries, Florida State University Libraries and the following crowd-sourced document:

 

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