The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Issues Memo on Free, Immediate, Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research

Taxpayer-supported Research Results to Be Made Available Immediately at No Cost 

This article is a part of the DEI Resource Highlight series. 

On August 25, 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) updated U.S. policy guidance to make the results of taxpayer-supported research immediately available to the American public at no cost. The policy aims to advance key priorities for Americans, from environmental justice and cancer breakthroughs to clean energy technologies. 

“When research is widely available to other researchers and the public, it can save lives, provide policymakers with the tools to make critical decisions, and drive more equitable outcomes across every sector of society,” said Dr. Alondra Nelson, head of OSTP.

The Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH-funded research. The Policy requires that final peer-reviewed manuscripts be accessible to the public on PubMed Central to help advance science and improve human health. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/).

Federal agencies with research and development expenditures must: 

• Update their public access policies to make publications and supporting data resulting from federally-funded research publicly accessible without an embargo on their free and public release, as soon as possible and no later than December 31, 2025; 
• Establish transparent procedures that ensure scientific and research integrity is maintained in public access policies; and 
• Coordinate with OSTP to ensure equitable delivery of federally funded research results and data. 

Read the memorandum in full HERE.