Open Access and Scholarly Communication

On August 25, 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a memorandum titled "Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research." This guidance has widely become known as The Nelson Memo or the OSTP Memo. 

Main Highlights: 

• The primary goal of the memo is to facilitate free, immediate (without embargo), and equitable access to research that is federally funded.
• The memo applies to all federal agencies.
• The memo applies to both peer-reviewed publications and underlying scientific data.

Key federal agency policy development and implementation dates: 

• August 25, 2022: OTSP/Nelson Memo published
• February 21, 2023: Draft public access policies due for federal agencies with more than $100 million in annual research and development (R&D) expenditures.
• August 20, 2023: Draft public access policies due for federal agencies with less than $100 million in annual R&D expenditures.
• December 31, 2024: Final public access policies due. Agencies must publish their final policies addressing all requirements outlined in the memo. Policies will go into effect no later than 1 year after they're published.
• December 31, 2025: New policies will be in effect no later than this date.

Adapted from the University of Arizona Libraries Office of Science and Technology (OSTP)/Nelson Memo (2022) under a CC BY 4.0 license. 

Is Public Access the same thing as Open Access?

• Public access means making research outputs freely available for everyone to read. It does not require that these outputs (publications and data) be free of copyright or reuse restrictions.
• Open access is a set of broad principles aimed at the free, immediate, online sharing of research outputs (publications and data) coupled with the rights to use these outputs free of copyright restrictions. Open access is much broader than public access. Open access materials are usually released under an open license (such as Creative Commons) that permits some degree of reuse, such as redistribution, modification, or adaptation. 

When will my research begin to be affected? 

• The memo requires that all agency policies will be in effect by December 31, 2025. It is probable that the majority of agencies will utilize the entire time to formulate and refine their policies and procedures. Consequently, you should anticipate that any new policies or procedures developed in response to the memorandum will impact your research projects receiving funding in 2025 or thereafter.

How can researchers prepare for upcoming changes? 

1. Begin using persistent identifiers (PIDs), also referred to as digital persistent identifiers (DPIs), for your publications and data.
   • Sign up for an ORCID account at orcid.org.
   • Include DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) for your research outputs including publications and data. Data you deposit in Dryad will be automatically assigned a DOI. 
   • Funding agencies often use PIDs to distinguish the funding body and specific grants. It is important to incorporate these PIDs in your publications, reports, and your ORCID profile for proper identification and attribution.
2. Develop data management plans (DMPs) as part of your project planning
   • DMPs will contribute to the assurance of well-structured strategies for data collection, effective management, long-term preservation, and seamless data access. Several federal agencies already require DMPs and it will soon become a standard practice. 
   • Refer to DMPTool.org for funder-specific templates and resources.