Here is information about public access policies for some of the larger federal funding agencies.
You can also refer to the website maintained by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) which keeps track of article and data sharing policies by federal agencies.
Implementation plan
Effective date: December 31, 2025
Articles:
- Final, peer-reviewed manuscripts documenting the results of DoD-funded research are uploaded, at the time of acceptance for publication, to a submission portal hosted and maintained by the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). Final, peer-reviewed manuscripts uploaded to the DTIC submission portal are released to the public after a 12-month embargo and final versions of open access journal articles are released immediately upon publication. Publications documenting the results of DoD-funded research will be: available without embargo or delay; made available in machine-readable format; and broadly accessible through assistive devices.
Data:
- Extramural researchers will store data sets underlying or resulting from DoD-funded research in digital repositories. DoD will issue guidance for selection of repositories based on the National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Open Science document entitled “Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research
Implementation plan
Effective date: immediately for manuscripts, October 1, 2025 for data
Articles:
- "DOE-funded researchers (authors), e.g., DOE federal employees, financial assistance recipients, or contractors (including laboratories), will submit the full-text accepted manuscript of a journal article and associated metadata to DOE’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) through E-Link or through labs’ publication management systems no later than the publication date of the article. If the article itself is published as “open access” (OA), the author may submit the OA article and metadata to DOE. DOE will provide immediate, free public access to submitted publications through its designated repository DOE PAGES®." (from DOE Public Access Plan)
Data:
Implementation plan
Effective date: October 1, 2024
Articles:
- Results of awarded projects should be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
- A copy of each publication must be submitted with the annual or final progress report.
Data:
- Final research data and tools should be shared either when the main findings are accepted for publication or when findings are submitted to the awarding agency.
- Data sharing exclusions: drafts of scientific papers; plans for future research; peer reviews; communications with colleagues; physical objects (e.g., laboratory samples, audio or video tapes); trade secrets; commercial information; materials necessary to be held confidential by a researcher until publication; intellectual property; personnel, medical files, and similar files; if disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy; personally identifiable information of study participants; data from human cells or tissues that reveal the identity of the original donors.
- Materials can be shared through the researcher's lab or organization or submitted to a repository.
- Unique biological data, like DNA sequences, should be sent to the appropriate data banks.
NOTE: Requirements for data sharing, publication timelines, and where to submit publications for public access may vary depending on the HHS agency that awarded the grant. For example, NIH grant recipients should defer to the NIH grants policy.
Implementation plan
Effective date: October 1, 2025
Articles:
- A machine readable copy of most appropriate version of a published manuscript (the version of record if possible, if not then the author's accepted manuscript) much be deposited in the IMLS designated repository. The most appropriate version may be the version of record, if that is allowed by the publisher, or it might be the author's accepted manuscript. It must be made available no later than the date of article publication and must be shared without embargo. This policy applies to journal articles, but may also include book chapters, conference proceedings, or editorials. Further instructions regarding the IMLS designated repository have not yet been released as of 2/2025 but will be forthcoming.
Data:
- This policy applies to all data underlying peer-reviewed scholarly publications with exceptions for data that cannot be shared for ethical or legal reasons. Data must be deposited immediately following publication. Researchers have the freedom to choose the repository that they feel is the most appropriate for publishing their research data. Researchers are responsible for ensuring that only research data that meet all disclosure requirements, including all ethical and legal restrictions, are shared publicly.
Implementation plan;
Effective date: already in effect
Articles:
- "It is NASA’s policy (per the 2022 OSTP Memorandum) that peer-reviewed publications be made freely available at the time of publication. This supersedes NASA’s previous guidance which allowed for a one-year embargo on publications."
Data:
- "Scientific data underlying peer-reviewed scholarly publications resulting from Federally funded research shall be made freely available and publicly accessible by default at the time of publication, and no embargo by a publisher or others shall be imposed, nor will such be recognized by NASA."
- "All proposals or project plans submitted to NASA for scientific research funding shall include a DMP that describes whether and how data generated through the course of the proposed research3 will be shared and preserved (including timeframe) or explains why data sharing and/or preservation are not possible or scientifically appropriate. At a minimum, DMPs shall describe how data sharing and preservation will enable validation of published results, or how such results could be validated if data are not shared or preserved."
Software:
- "Scientific software underlying peer-reviewed scholarly publications resulting from Federally funded research must be made freely available and publicly accessible by default at the time of publication."
- "Unrestricted, scientific software developed to support the scientific processing and analysis of data that is produced as part of missions, including software underlying technical reports if practical, must be made freely available at the time of publication of the product that it supports."
- "All proposals or project plans submitted to NASA for scientific research funding will be required to include a Software Management Plan (SMP) that describes whether and how software generated through the course of the proposed research will be shared and preserved (including timeframe) or explains why software sharing and/or preservation are not possible or scientifically appropriate."
Implementation plan
Effective date: October 1, 2025
Articles:
- "Recipients must submit a copy of the author's accepted manuscript (AAM) for any peer-reviewed scholarly article resulting in whole or in part from award activities. Recipients must submit an AAM to NEH no later than the article publication date, defined here as the date the final publisher's version is available online."
- "NEH will also accept the version of record or publisher's version of the article when the applicable publisher agreement explicitly allows this."
- NEH will deposit articles in Knowledge Commons, a free repository that is publicly available.
Data:
- "Recipients must publicly share applied or scientific research datasets produced as a result of funding from a small number of NEH programs, as described in the respective Notices of Funding Opportunity. Recipients will not submit data directly to NEH; rather, they will adhere to a Data Management and Sharing Pan (DMPS) detailing expected points of access and preservation."
Implementation Plan
Effective date: July 1, 2025
Articles:
- "Submission of the electronic version of the [peer-reviewed] Author Accepted Manuscript to PubMed Central upon its acceptance for publication, for public availability without embargo upon the Official Date of Publication." Or
- "Submission of the Final Published Article to PubMed Central from journals or publishers with formal agreements with NLM [National Library of Medicine], upon the Official Date of Publication, for public availability without embargo."
Implementation Plan
Effective date: January 25, 2023
Data:
- "Submission of a Data Management and Sharing Plan outlining how scientific data and any accompanying metadata will be managed and shared, taking into account any potential restrictions or limitations."
- "Compliance with the awardee’s plan as approved by the NIH ICO [Institute, Center, Office]."
Implementation plan
Effective date: October 1, 2024
Articles:
- NOAA Library (encouraged, other repositories may be acceptable)
Data:
Implementation plan [Draft]
Effective date: Estimated October 2025
Articles:
- "Final versions of manuscripts accepted for publication after peer-review in either scholarly journals or juried conference proceedings must be deposited in NSF’s Public Access Repository (PAR)."
Data:
- "Scientific datasets underlying peer-reviewed scholarly publications resulting from federally funded research should be made freely available and publicly accessible by default at the time of publication in a repository which assigns a persistent identifier (e.g., DOI) to such deposited datasets, and the persistent identifier must be recorded in NSF’s Public Access Repository as part of the annual and final annual project reporting process."
