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Public Access Toolkit

The public access toolkit provides guidance to researchers who receive funding from U.S. federal agencies and must comply with public access mandates.

Publication and Data Sharing Requirements

To browse or find publication and data sharing requirements by federal agency, visit the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) community resource, which tracks and compares both current and future U.S. federal funder requirements for sharing research publications and research data.

Timeline for Implementation

Key dates:

  • August 25, 2022, Nelson Memo published.
  • December 31, 2024, Deadline for agencies to publish final public access policies.
  • July 1, 2025, New policies went into effect.

The implementation of the memorandum involves two main phases:

  • First, agencies develop new public access plans or update existing ones for submission to OMB and OSTP. Agencies previously subject to the 2013 Holdren Memo already have public access plans and were required to submit updates within six months (180 days). Agencies not subject to the Holdren Memo had a full year (360 days) to submit their plans for review.
  • Second, once OMB and OSTP review the plans, agencies must publish their final implementation plans by December 31, 2024, with effective dates no later than one year after publication. As a result, agencies covered by the Holdren Memo may have implemented their updated plans prior to July 1, 2025.

As of July 1, 2025, all new and updated agency public access policies for publications and data are in effect.

How might my research be affected now?

The 2022 memo requires all federal agency public access policies to be in effect by July 1, 2025. While some agencies adopted their policies earlier, most have used the full development period. Now that all policies are active, you should expect and prepare for changes in requirements related to public access to publications and data stemming from federally funded research.

Reference

Nelson, Dr. Alondra. “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research.” Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Public Access Memo, August 25, 2022. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-Access-Memo.pdf

Attribution of the text of this page is given to the University of Illinois-Chicago Libraries. See https://researchguides.uic.edu/ostp/ostp