Upcoming Policy Changes Impacting Federally-Funded Research

What changes are coming to federal agencies' public access policies?

A 2022 memo from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) outlines new requirements for access to federally-funded research publications. Federal agencies with any level of research and development expenditures are required to establish new, compliant public access policies by December 31, 2024, to go into effect no later than December 31, 2025.

Specific requirements for these new policies are:

• Publications with federally-funded research results and their supporting data must be made publicly accessible immediately upon publication.
• There can no longer be an embargo period on making these publications freely available.
• The policy applies to all federal agencies, regardless of their total research and development expenditures (previously was limited to agencies with >$100,000,000 in annual expenditures).

How is the NIH Public Access Policy changing?

• The final revised NIH Public Access Policy has not yet been released as of this writing.
• A draft policy was released for public comment in February 2023.
• The primary changes in this draft policy, compared to the current NIH Public Access Policy are:
  • PubMed Central deposit procedures will be modified, removing the option currently allowing a 12-month embargo on full text access to the publication.
  • The official publication date (i.e, the date NIH uses to determine public access compliance status) will be clarified as "the date on which the publisher first makes an article available, either online or in print."
• Otherwise, methods for making an article available through PubMed Central will remain the same.
• The current NIH Data Management & Sharing Policy is still in effect.

How are other agencies' policies changing?

Please see the links below for more information about selected agencies' responses to the OSTP memo. For other funding agencies, please refer to the agency website or search the Federal Register using terms such as "public access" for more information about their specific policy.

• Department of Energy:
  https://www.energy.gov/doe-public-access-plan
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA):
  https://sti.nasa.gov/research-access/
• U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF):
  https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2023/nsf23104/nsf23104.pdf
• U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA):
  https://www.nal.usda.gov/services/public-access

How is SPI-Hub™ aiding authors with these policy changes?

• We will continue to update this page with new information as the deadline for implementation draws nearer.
• We are working to add information to SPI-Hub™ journal records that will aid authors in assessing whether a particular journal meets current and future public access policy requirements.

Where can I go for more information and help?

• Please see the 2022 OSTP memo for additional information:
  https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-Access-Memo.pdf
• Your organization may provide assistance with paying open access charges through publisher transformative agreements. Please check with your organization for more detail.