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OSTP Mandate: Public Access Policies for Federally Funded Research

Quick guide to public access requirements from federal funding agencies.

Agency for Healthecare Research Quality (AHRQ)

The AHRQ Public Access Policy is currently in effect:

  • Fully covers published outputs
  • Fully covers data
  • Requires all research proposals to include a Data Management Plan (DMP).

AHRQ requires:

  • All primary data collected by grant, contract, or intramural research to be submitted to a commercial data repository, as yet unnamed.
  • All publications resulting from  AHRQ-funded grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, and intramural research to be deposited to PubMed Central.

The policy allows Grant, Cooperative Agreement, and Contract Awardees and their institutions to include reasonable cost for public access to publications and data in digital format as a component of grant, cooperative agreements, and research contract applications.

Center for Disease Control

The CDC Public Access Policy:

  • Fully covers published outputs
  • Fully covers data
  • Requires all research proposals to include a Data Management Plan (DMP).

CDC requires CDC-funded investigators to:

  • Submit an electronic version of  manuscripts resulting from extramural or intramural work to the National Institutes of Health Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS).
  • Submit electronic version of  manuscripts resulting from intramural work to the National Institutes of Health Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS).
  • Submit an electronic version of peer-reviewed (extramural) manuscripts to  PubMed Central no later than 12 months after the official data of publication.  
  • Share all primary data through CDC/ATSDR Scientific Data Repository and its data dissemination portal CDC WONDER.

CDC allows the inclusion of appropriate costs for data management and access in applications and proposals for CDC funding

Researchers with CDC funding should:

  • Submit data in digital format to CDC/ATSDR and CDC Wonder.
  • Submit manuscripts to NIHMS and PubMed Central.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

The FDA Public Access Policy is in effect:

  • Fully covers published outputs
  • Fully covers data
  • Requires all research proposals to include a Data Management Plan (DMP).

FDA requires its funded investigators to:

  • Submit an electronic version of final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts to the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) which is linked to PubMed Central.
  • Make all primary datasets publicly accessible in discipline specific data repositories such as GenBank currently used by molecular biologist to deposit datasets that contain novel nucleotide sequences. 

FDA allows the inclusion of appropriate costs for data management and access in research proposals.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The NIH Public Access Policy has been in effect since 2003:

  • Fully covers published outputs
  • Fully covers data
  • Requires all research proposals to include a Data Management Plan (DMP).

NIH requires investigators to submit an electronic version of peer-reviewed articles that arise from NIH funds to PMC immediately upon acceptance for publication.

NIH allows publication costs to be reimbursed by NIH grants

Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR)

The ASPR Public Access Policy is currently in effect:

  • Fully covers published outputs
  • Fully covers data
  • Requires all research proposals to include a Data Management Plan (DMP).

ASPR requires its project investigators to submit:

  • An electronic version of final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts to PubMed Central.
  • All primary data underlying the conclusions of peer-reviewed scientific research publications to public repositories.

ASPR allows the inclusion of appropriate costs for data management and access in applications and proposals for ASPR funding.

Finally, ASPR currently requires all researchers to submit:

  • Data in digital format to public repositories.
  • Manuscripts to PubMed Central.