On August 25, 2022, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a significant update to their existing guidance on public access to publications resulting from federally funded research. The charge to the agencies related to this new policy are as follows:
1. Update their public access policies as soon as possible, and no later than December 31st, 2025, to make publications and their supporting data resulting from federally funded research publicly accessible
without an embargo on their free and public release
2. Establish transparent procedures that ensure scientific and research integrity is maintained in public access policies
3. Coordinate with OSTP to ensure equitable delivery of federally funded research results and data
Although much of the focus to date has been the elimination of the nearly decade-old 12-month embargo period, the scope of the new policy and accompanying Economic Impact Report go far beyond the OSTP’s 2013 Memorandum on Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research. The new policy includes books [NIH1] as well as research articles, removes the $100M threshold for agency-compliance, and specifies increased cooperation between federal agencies as they seek to comply. With an aggressive implementation deadline, the “TO DO” list seems lengthy and overwhelming and currently there seem to be more questions than answers.
In addition to the largely expanded scope, what else has changed? Which changes are the most significant and why? What are the immediate and longer-term implications for all stakeholders? How will this policy impact the scholarly communication ecosystem at scale … and what are some potential unintended consequences? Can we reasonably predict and model the policy’s impact, financial and otherwise?