Also known as the Nelson Memo, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released the memorandum "Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research" in August 2022.
The memo provides all federal agencies that support research with the following recommendations:
February 22, 2013: Publication of the first public access memo "Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research"
August 25, 2022: Publication of the Nelson memo "Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research"
December 31, 2024: Federal agencies must publish their public access policies.
December 31, 2025: The deadline for federal agencies' policies to be in effect.
December 31, 2026: Federal agencies must publish their updated plans to address research integrity and transparency through the collection and public availability of metadata associated with scholarly publications and data, including persistent identifiers for both the research outputs and the authors
December 31, 2027: The deadline for implementation of revised plans
These definitions are specific to the Nelson Memo
include peer-reviewed research articles or final manuscripts published in scholarly journals
may include
peer-reviewed book chapters
editorials
peer-reviewed conference proceedings
include the recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as of sufficient quality to validate and replicate research findings.
do not include
laboratory notebooks, preliminary analyses, case report forms, drafts of scientific papers, plans for future research, peer-reviews, communications with colleagues, or physical objects and materials, such as laboratory specimens, artifacts, or field notes
Providing public access to federally funded research promotes accountability and research integrity.
Federal agencies fund research (research grants)
Researchers may pay to publish their articles (allowable expense in research budgets)
Libraries pay for journal subscriptions (indirect research costs)
Researchers review research articles and serve on editorial boards (salary may be paid by research grant)
Americans pay to access published scholarly research
See the Report to the U.S. Congress on Financing Mechanisms for Open Access Publishing of Federally Funded Research (pdf).
"Federal agencies should take steps to ensure that public access policies support scientific and research integrity by transparently communicating to the public critical information, including that which is related to the authorship, funding, affiliations, and development status of federally funded research. The public should be able to identify which federal agencies support given investments in science, the scientists who conduct that research, and the extent to which peer-review was conducted."
Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research, p. 5. (pdf)
The Nelson Memo (2022, pdf)
List of Grant-funding agencies
Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research (2022, pdf)
HELIOS Open Analysis of New OSTP Guidance
Association of Research Libraries OSTP 2013 & 2022 Public-Access Memo Comparison