We want to inform you about the impacts of the new memorandum from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) that was published in August 2022. The policy directs US federal agencies to develop plans for how they will ensure free, immediate, and equitable access to federally funded research.
This page links to appropriate information and resources whenever possible and will be updated as new information becomes available. Please check back frequently.
The OSTP policy may impact several stakeholders, including:
How federal agencies and stakeholders will respond to the policy is evolving.
The 2013 Holdren Memo required federally funded researchers to make their research papers publicly available no later than 12 months after publication. This policy applied to agencies with research and development (R&D) budgets of $100 million or more and required researchers to develop data management plans.
The 2022 OSTP/Nelson Memo is now directing federal agencies with any level of R&D budget to create policies requiring that funded researchers provide immediate public access to research papers and data upon publication.
Here is a summary of the key differences:
| 2013 Holdren Memo | 2022 OTSP/Nelson Memo |
|---|---|
| Articles must be made publicly available no later than 12 months after publication | Articles must be made publicly available immediately upon publication |
| Data from unclassified research should be made publicly available | Research data associated with peer-reviewed publications must be made publicly available upon publication. All data from federally funded projects should be publicly accessible as well. |
| Applicable only to funding agencies with more that $100 million in R&D budget | Applicable to all federal funding agencies |
| Applies to peer-review manuscripts | Applies to peer-reviewed manuscripts, peer-reviewed book chapters, editorials, and peer-review conference papers published in other scholarly outlets |
| Allows the inclusion of appropriate costs for data management and access in proposals | Allows the inclusion of publication, data curation, and archiving costs in research budgets |
Federal agencies will be developing their plans according to these dates included in the memo:
From OSTP:
Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies: Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research
This information is from Office of Science and Technology (OSTP)/Nelson Memo (2022) © 2023 by Universiity of Arizona Libraries is licensed under CC BY 4.0 
