On August 25, 2022, the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a memorandum on Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research that will make taxpayer-funded research immediately available for the public to freely access and fully use. The new guidance unlocks more than $90 billion in research that the U.S. government funds each year by calling on all federal agencies to generate policies that eliminate the current 12-month waiting period for access to the outputs of federally funded research, including articles and data.
The memorandum, issued by Dr. Alondra Nelson, underscores the critical role that openness plays in ensuring scientific research integrity, providing important new guidance for the use of digital personal identifiers and robust metadata accompanying articles and datasets. It also calls on agencies to ensure that their policies are updated to ensure equity in both the publishing of and access to the record of science – particularly for traditionally underserved communities, and researchers who are early in their careers.
Agency Updates
Agency Policies, Plans, and Previous Requests for Information (RFIs)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
NIH released its final Public Access Policy along with additional guidance on Publication Costs and Government Use License and Rights on December 17, 2024.
NIH released its draft Public Access Policy and Supplemental Guidance on June 18, 2024. The agency issued a Request for Information (RFI) to gather feedback on the draft policy and guidance. Comments close on August 19, 2024. >>> Read SPARC’s Comments.
- Read SPARC’s overview of the draft Public Access Policy and Supplemental Guidance.
NIH released its draft Public Access Plan and issued a Request for Information (RFI) to gather feedback. Comments closed on April 24, 2023. >> Read SPARC’s comments.
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
USAID released its Public Access Plan: Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research. A Request for Information (RFI) has not been issued at this time.
Social Security Administration
The Social Security Administration released its Plan for Increasing Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research and issued a Request for Information (RFI). Comments closed on June 12, 2024. >>> Read SPARC’s Comments.
U.S. Department of Education
The Department of Education released its Plan for Public Access: Improving Access to Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research. A Request for Information (RFI) has not been issued at this time.
Administration for Community Living (ACL)
ACL released its Plan To Expand Public Access To Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications And Scientific Data. A Request for Information (RFI) has not been issued at this time.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
USDA released its Implementation Plan to Increase Public Access to USDA-Funded Research Results and issued a second Request for Information (RFI). Comments closed on February 28, 2024. >>> Read SPARC’s Comments.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
USGS released its plan for Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research at the US Geological Survey. A Request for Information (RFI) has not been issued at this time.
U.S. Census Bureau
The U.S. Census Bureau released its Plan for Providing Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research and issued a Request for Information. Comments closed on March 12, 2024. >> Read SPARC’s Comments.
National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST)
NIST released its Plan for Providing Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research and issued a Request for Information (RFI) to gather feedback. Comments closed on August 14, 2023. >> Read SPARC’s Comments.
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
DOE released its final Public Access Policy in November 2024.
DOE released its Public Access Plan in June 2023. A Request for Information (RFI) has not ben issued at this time. The public can send feedback and comments to DOE by emailing [email protected].
National Science Foundation (NSF)
NSF released a draft of its proposed public access policy on December 12, 2024. It is embedded in a larger document called the Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG). The PAPPG is open for public comment until February 10, 2025.
NSF released its NSF Public Access Plan 2.0. A Request for Information (RFI) has been issued in the form of a survey to gather feedback on the plan. Visit this survey link to submit a response. The survey closed on January 2, 2024. >> Read SPARC’s response.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
NASA released an updated Public Access Plan in December 2024.
NASA released its draft Public Access Plan and issued a Request for Information (RFI) to gather feedback. Comments closed on August 17, 2023. >> Read SPARC’s Comments.
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)
DOT issued a Request for Information (RFI) to gather feedback on Increasing Public Access to the Results of USDOT-Funded Transportation Research. Comments closed on May 10, 2023. >> Read SPARC’s comments.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
AHRQ released its draft Public Access Plan and issued a Request for Information (RFI) to gather feedback. Comments closed on May 31, 2023. >> Read SPARC’s comments
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
NEH released its final Public Access Policy on December 9, 2024.
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
IMLS released its final Public Access Policy on December 19, 2024.
U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)
DOD released an “implementation plan” in December 2024.
Resources
Full Text of the 2022 Memorandum: Ensuring Free, Immediate and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research
Full Text of the OSTP Blog Announcement: Breakthroughs for All: Delivering Equitable Access to Americas Research
Full Text of OSTP Report to Congress: Economic Landscape of Federal Public Access Policy
SPARC’s analysis of the updated OSTP guidance can be found here.
SPARC’s FAQ on the updated OSTP guidance can be found here.
Supportive Statements & Blog Posts
This is a selection of statements/blogs and not meant to be an exhaustive list:
- President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Speech
- SPARC Thank You Letter to White House
- Open Research Funders Group: “Open Research Funders Group Applauds Bold OSTP Action”
- Statement by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden
- International Science Council: “US Policy on open access to federally funded research hailed as game-changer for scientific publishing”
- cOAlition S: “cOAlition S welcomes the updated Open Access policy guidance from the White House Office of Science Technology and Policy”
- OAWG Thank You Letter to White House
- Creative Commons: “A Big Win for Open Access: United States Mandates All Publicly Funded Research Be Freely Available with No Embargo”
- NAGPS Thank You Letter to White House
- Statement from NAGPS
- Niskanen Center: “Niskanen Center commends OSTP open access policy”
- UCGPC Thank You Letter to White House
- Data Curation Network’s Blog
- Statement from Open Access Scholarly Publishers
- Statement from Virginia’s Public Academic Research Libraries
Relevant Media Coverage
- Science: White House requires immediate access to all U.S.-funded research papers by 2025 by Jeffrey Brainard and Jocelyn Kaiser
- New York Times: White House Pushes Journals to Drop Paywalls on Publicly Funded Research by Vimal Patel
- Publisher’s Weekly: Biden Administration Announces Historic Open Access Policy for Taxpayer-Funded Research by Andrew Albanese
- The Scientist: No More Paywalls on Federally Funded Research: White House by Shawna Williams
- Chronicle of Higher Education: ‘A Historic Moment’: New Guidance Requires Federally Funded Research to Be Open Access by Megan Zahneis
- Times Higher Education: US orders publicly funded research be made free to access immediately by Paul Baskin
Additional Resources
- SPARC press release on 2022 OSTP updated policy guidance
- SPARC fact sheet on 2022 OSTP updated policy guidance
- SPARC blog, “In a Historic Win for Open Access, U.S. Publicly Funded Research will be Freely and Immediately Available to All”
- Statement on NIH plans to speed access to federally funded research results