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Research Data Management: Public Access Policies

Creating a data management plan for access, sharing, and preservation

Federal Funding Requirements

With the 2013 memo on “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research” and the 2022 memo on “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research” issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), each federal agency is responsible for detailing their requirements. NIH has required peer-reviewed articles resulting from NIH-funded research to be made publicly available on PubMed Central (PMC) since 2008. Generally, researchers applying for federal grants are required to submit a data management plan.

NIH Public Access Policy

NIH Public Access Policy Overview  

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued its updated 2024 Public Access Policy on December 17, 2024. The new leadership at NIH announced an accelerated implementation date for the updated Public Access Policy, which takes effect on July 1, 2025. 

Requirements and Scope

  • The Policy applies to all existing grants, including those awarded prior to July 1, 2025. 
  • Researchers are required to submit the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) or Final Published Article for any peer-reviewed journal article based on research funded, in whole or in part, by NIH grants into PubMed Central (PMC) immediately upon the official date of publication. 
  • When submitting to NIH, authors must agree to a license similar to the Government Use License at 2 CFR 200.315, explicitly granting NIH the right to make the manuscript publicly available in PMC, with no embargo, on the Official Date of Publication (The date on which the Final Published Article is first made available in final, edited form, whether in print or online format).
  • The Policy does not require authors to pay a fee, such as an article processing charge for open access. The updated policy continues to allow reasonable publication costs as part of the project budget. Fees charged by a journal or publisher for submission of the AAM to PubMed Central are not allowable costs.

Submitting papers to PubMed Central (PMC) in accordance with the NIH Public Access Policy

PubMed Central (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature managed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

NSF Public Access Policy

NSF released in 2023 NSF Public Access Plan 2.0: Ensuring Open, Immediate, and Equitable Access to National Science Foundation Funded Research. NSFʻs public access requirements are available in the Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide in the sections on Copyright and Publication/Dissemination of Grant Materials. For additional context regarding public access at NSF, please see the Public Access Plan published in March 2015.

The NSF public access initiative ensures that research publications from NSF awards are made publicly accessible.  

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Public Access policies

NSF Public Access Repository (PAR)

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