Federal Public Access Mandates

In August 2022, the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the White House issued a memorandum to federal funding agencies with new guidelines for updating their respective public access policies for federally-funded research. The statement, “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research,” builds on the public access of research memo released in 2013 and recommends agencies: 

1. Update their public access policies as soon as possible, and no later than December 31st, 2025, to make publications and their supporting data resulting from federally funded research publicly accessible without an embargo on their free and public release; 

2. Establish transparent procedures that ensure scientific and research integrity is maintained in public access policies; and,

3. Coordinate with OSTP to ensure equitable delivery of federally funded research results and data

While agencies are responsible for providing specific guidance for implementation, the memo gives insight into changes researchers can anticipate. For example, researchers will be expected to:

• Publish approved peer-reviewed scholarly publications and scientific data in agency-designated, open access repositories
• Create and maintain data management and sharing plans
• Provide metadata for public access, including author and co-author names, affiliations, funding sources, date of publication, and associated persistent identifiers