The Nelson Memo
On August 25, 2022, the leader of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at the White House, Dr. Alondra Nelson, released a memorandum to the heads of federal agencies which fund research. It was an update to the 2013 OSTP memorandum, Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research, which required that all agencies with $100 million or more in expenditures on research and development had to make the results of that research freely and openly available to the public. Importantly, it allowed for publishers to enforce a 12-month embargo before making the research openly available to all.
The 2022 memo is entitled Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research, but it more commonly goes by The Nelson Memo. In the memo, Dr. Nelson updates the 2013 memo by 1) removing the option of a 12-month embargo and 2) extending the public access policy apply to all federal agencies administering research funding, not just those with more than $100 million.
Federal agencies were given between 6 and 12 months to develop public access policies in accordance with the new guidance, and they are to be finalized and published no later than December 31, 2024. The new policies must go into effect no later than one year after they are published.
We are now awaiting the release of the draft policies, especially those from the many departments with under $100 million in research funds and did not need to develop one formerly.
Relevant Documents and Analysis
- 2022 OSTP Nelson MemoFull text of "Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research."
- 2022 Economic Landscape of Federal Public Access Policy"OSTP was asked to provide a report to Congress on the potential economic impacts of anticipated federal public access policy changes" outlined in the Nelson Memo.
- 2022 Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded ResearchThis document "identifies a set of desirable characteristics of online, public access data repositories to help ensure that research data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) to the greatest extent possible, while integrating privacy, security, and other protections."
- 2021 OSTP Congressional Report on Public Access"Of the more than 20 Federal departments and agencies subject to the Memorandum, all have developed plans and implemented policies that require Federal scientists and scientists funded by the department or agency to" make their publications freely available 12-months after publication and provide data management plans explaining how they will make the underlying data accessible as well.
- 2013 OSTP Memo on Public Access to Federally Funded ResearchThe first guidance offered by the White House and still in place aside from those sections updated or superseded by the 2022 Nelson Memo.
- Public Access to Federally Funded Research (Serials Review 2023)From the abstract: "This new memo removes the option of a 12 months embargo, and it extends the requirement agencies with less than $100 million in annual research and development expenditures. This column investigates the possible impacts of the broader policy, including introducing the public access requirement to new agencies and academic disciplines, and how a repository approach to public access might intersect with publisher provided open access."
- US moves to make federally funded research free upon publication (Physics Today)"The White House has ordered that by 2026 the results of government-supported research must be published open access, but many questions remain about how the policy will be implemented."
- White House requires immediate public access to all U.S.-funded research papers by 2025 (Science)"Policy is a blow to journal paywalls, but its impact on publishing is unclear."
U.S. Federal Agency Public Access Policies
- DOE Public Access Plan (2023)The Department of Energy Public Access Plan (June 2023) describes how DOE-funded research and digital data will become more open and available to the public and how DOE will use persistent identifiers to help ensure scientific and research integrity. Building on the previous DOE Public Access Plan (July 2014), the new Plan charts a path to:
Provide free, immediate access to peer-reviewed, scholarly publications;
Provide immediate access to scientific data displayed in or underlying publications and increased access to other data;
Use persistent identifiers (PIDs) for research outputs, researchers, organizations, and awards.
Policy and implementation guidance related to the publications and data components of the Plan will be issued by December 31, 2024, followed by policy and guidance for PID requirements. - NSF Public Access Plan 2.0 (2023)In 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) mandated that agencies undertake new plans to ensure that by 2025 peer-reviewed publications and associated data arising from federally funded research be made immediately and freely available upon date of publication.
NSF is now responding to this new mandate and will be actively engaging with the research communities served by NSF to inform and learn from them about the policies and practices as they are deployed to comply with these new mandates. - USGS Public Access Plan (2023)The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) “Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research at the U.S. Geological Survey: Scholarly Publications and Digital Data” has been updated to reflect new directives resulting from an Office of Science Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum issued August 25, 2022. The updated USGS Public Access Plan (Plan) outlines a framework for activities to increase public access to scholarly publications and digital scientific data resulting from research funded by the USGS.
- USAID Public Access Plan (2016)This Plan will guide the development of agency procedures and policies to achieve this objective. It will make USAID-funded research products available and accessible to the public, industry, and scientific community. These research products include peer-reviewed research publications, datasets, and other supporting artifacts. Through greater access to these products, USAID will maximize its return on investment in research and will expedite evidence-based policy making in support of its mission.
- CDC Public Access Plan (2015)The CDC public access plan for publications outlines the requirements for the implementation of the [2013] OSTP Memo at CDC. The goal of this plan is to ensure that the public has free access to peer-reviewed publications funded by CDC. To reach this goal, authors must have a way to submit their manuscripts into a repository system that allows access to the manuscript and ensures that funded manuscripts are captured. The key points to this plan are the manuscript submission system, document repository, and compliance management.
- NASA Public Access Initiative (2014)NASA answered the OSTP mandate by creating an agency plan entitled “NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research” and an associated policy, NPD 2230.1, Research Data and Publication Access. Together, they outline a framework for activities to increase public access to scientific publications and digital scientific data resulting from NASA-funded research.
