Public will have quicker and easier access to federally funded research results

Over the last month, the Department of Energy (DOE), National Science Foundation (NSF), and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have released plans for complying with a 2022 White House policy that requires scientific papers resulting from federally funded research to be freely available upon publication, sunsetting the current one-year embargo period by 2025.

The 2023 DOE Public Access Plan describes how DOE-funded research and digital data will become more open and available to the public. Building on the previous DOE Public Access Plan of July 2014, the new Plan charts a path to:

• Provide free, immediate access to peer-reviewed, scholarly publications;
• Provide quick 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 to help ensure scientific and research integrity.

NSF Public Access Plan 2.0 includes efforts to:

• Maintain the NSF Public Access Repository, where NSF-supported publications and other research products are publicly available. 
• Fund projects that advance the understanding of, provide resources for, or encourage practices toward enhancing public access. 
• Coordinate agency activities regarding public access. 

SSTI reported on the NIST draft plans and request for comments in the July 6, 2023 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest. See the article, NIST plans to increase public access to federally funded research results, for more information.