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Understanding federal public access requirements

In August, 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (“OSTP”) issued additional guidance on public access. The memo, “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research (PDF)” directs federal agencies, to the extent consistent with applicable law, to update their public access policies to make publications and their supporting data resulting from federally funded research publicly accessible without an embargo. This memo directed agencies to finalize their policies and implement them by December 31, 2025.

Key elements of these policies include:

  1. All scholarly publications that result from federally funded research must be made freely available and publicly accessible by default in an agency-designated repository without any embargo or delay after publication.
    1. Scholarly publications include “peer-reviewed research articles or final manuscripts published in scholarly journals, and may include peer-reviewed book chapters, editorials, and peer-reviewed conference proceedings published in other scholarly outlets”.
    2. Either the Authors Accepted Manuscript (AAM) or Version of Record (VoR) is made available in the agency’s designated repository, without embargo, at the time of publication of the work.
  2. Scientific data underlying the peer-reviewed scholarly publications should be made freely available and publicly accessible by default at the time of publication, and will be subject to agency guidelines for researcher responsibilities regarding data management and sharing plans.
    1. “Scientific data” include the recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as of sufficient quality to validate and replicate research findings.
    2. All agencies refer to the NSTC’s Desirable Characteristics for Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research (PDF) when providing guidance to researchers on selecting a digital repository for sharing data.
    3. Deposited data needs to meet all standards, agency and non-agency, such as de-identifying data (e.g., HIPAA). 
  3. As part of the Research Integrity clause, there is increased emphasis on unique digital persistent identifiers (that meet the core standards as defined in Guidance For Implementing National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (PDF) On National Security Strategy For United States Government-Supported Research and Development). Specifically, persistent identifiers will be required:
    1. For federally-funded researchers, such as an ORCID.
    2. For all research outputs, such as a DOI.
    3. For all sources of funding with metadata linking agency to the awardee.