Public Access Policies

What are Public Access Plans?

Public access plans are the implementation of public access policies that require sharing of funded research. These policies apply to scholarly publications and data. Public access plans describe how this information should be made publicly accessible (OSTP). All US federal agencies that fund research are required to have public access plans by December 31, 2025.

Locating Public Access Policies and Plans

Listed below are resources that link to all federal agencies' policies and plans.

• US Funding Agencies Public Access Plans (CHORUS)
• CHORUS tracks Funding Agencies Public Access Plans and their respective requirements.
• Updated Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Policy Guidance (SPARC)
  Updates on US Federal agencies' policies and plans resulting from the August 25, 2022, White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum on Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research. Includes a list of the updated public access plans as they are released.
• Data and Article Sharing Requirements by US Federal Agency (SPARC)
  A community resource for tracking, comparing, and understanding both current and future U.S. federal funder requirements for sharing research articles and research data. This resource is updated periodically.
• A Short History of US Public Access Policies (University of Alabama Birmingham)
  This colorful chart lays out the history of US public access policies from 2010 to the present and explains why the policies were established.

Questions

Do public access plans require that ALL data resulting from federal grant funding be made public?
No. Some plans require only that data associated with publications be publicly available, but this is changing. Researchers should adhere to the details of the grant and follow the guidance of the agency. Only final data need to be shared (not working data). Data that is sensitive or
contains Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is generally exempt.

Do researchers have to publish open access and pay article-processing fees to comply with public access policies? 
No. They are welcome to publish open access, but it is not required. Most federal agencies only require deposit of the author’s accepted manuscript (AAM, after peer-review but before copyediting and typesetting), not the final published version.

What’s the difference between Public Access and Open Access?
It can be confusing! Open Access refers to a publishing model where the final published version is available to the public without a subscription. It is often funded by Article Processing Fees (APCs) paid by the author, their grant, or through an agreement with their institution. Public Access refers to a policy in which the results of research are available to the public in some form (such as the Author’s Accepted Manuscript), regardless of whether the final published version is published open access or in a subscription journal (i.e. paywalled).

What is the 2022 Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) Whitehouse memo?
On August 22, 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) released a memo requiring all federal funding agencies develop or update their public access plans to provide immediate public access to scholarship resulting from federal grant funding by the end of 2025. It’s sometimes referred to as the Nelson memo. Previous memos regarding public access had only applied to larger funding agencies and allowed for a 12-month embargo for public access following publication. This new memo eliminates the embargo period and applies to all funding agencies.