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Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Generally, federally funded peer-reviewed research publications must be made freely available through an agency-designated repository without an embargo under policies updated to implement the White House’s 2022 public-access memorandum. But there is no single start date or deposit workflow for every agency and award: agencies set their own effective dates and requirements. The December 31, 2025 date was the deadline for agencies to update their policies, not a universal award-level cutoff.
What the White House policy requires
The August 25, 2022 memorandum from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) directs federal agencies to update their public-access policies so that peer-reviewed scholarly publications resulting from federally funded research are publicly available by default in agency-designated repositories, without an embargo or delay after publication. The memo’s examples include journal research articles and final manuscripts, and it says agencies may also cover peer-reviewed book chapters, editorials and conference proceedings. Read the OSTP memorandum.
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This is a public-access rule, not a requirement that every journal adopt a particular publishing business model. The memo focuses on access through repositories and asks agencies to specify applicable reuse rights and restrictions. It does not abolish peer review or require publication in a journal that charges no subscription or publication fee.
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OSTP said more than 8 million scholarly publications had become publicly accessible under the earlier policy and that over 3 million people read those articles for free each day. Those figures are reported in the 2022 memorandum. OSTP memorandum.
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When does the federal open-access policy start?
The memo gave agencies until December 31, 2025, to update their policies. “From 2026” is a useful shorthand for the period after that deadline, but it does not mean every federally funded paper, regardless of agency or award, becomes subject to an identical rule on January 1, 2026. Effective dates and covered work depend on the relevant agency policy.
Implementation was still uneven in the Government Accountability Office’s May 2026 review of nine agencies. GAO reported that seven had issued updated plans or policies and two were still drafting them. Five of the reviewed plans or policies fully met OSTP guidance. The sample is not a complete inventory of all federal agencies. GAO’s May 2026 report.
How agency rules differ
Check the policy for the agency that funded the work; do not assume another agency’s date, repository or data deadline applies. These examples show why the award and manuscript details matter:
| Agency | Timing and requirements described by the agency |
|---|---|
| NIH | NIH’s 2024 Public Access Policy applies to manuscripts accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025, and NIH says it aligns with the OSTP memorandum. NIH reports that more than 1.4 million articles reporting on NIH-supported research were freely available in PubMed Central under its 2008 policy; the NIH page does not specify a measurement year for that count. NIH public-access policy. |
| IES | The Institute of Education Sciences says its plan is being implemented over fiscal years 2025 and 2026. It says publications from federally funded work will be free immediately after publication; data sharing is required at publication or, if unpublished, five years after the award ends, whichever comes first. For awardees receiving funds after October 1, 2024, a full-text article must be uploaded to ERIC immediately upon publication. These are IES-specific requirements. IES research access plan. |
GAO’s review also identified reuse-rights issues in the NSF and USDA plans and made 11 recommendations to nine agencies. Its findings describe the reviewed agencies and the state of implementation at the time of its May 2026 report, not a live status tracker. GAO report.
Does the policy require research data to be public?
The OSTP memo separately calls for scientific data underlying peer-reviewed publications to be freely available by default at publication, subject to stated limitations. It also asks agencies to develop approaches and timelines for other federally funded scientific data. That does not mean every dataset must be released without safeguards.
Agencies must account for applicable law and address limits involving privacy, ethics, intellectual property, security, technical issues and other legal concerns. The memo recognizes risk-mitigated access where appropriate. Researchers should follow their agency’s data-management and sharing requirements, including any restrictions on sensitive or personally identifiable information, rather than treating “open access” as permission to disclose protected data. OSTP memorandum.
Where do I deposit a federally funded paper?
Use the repository and workflow named by the funding agency’s policy or award instructions. OSTP calls for agency-designated repositories; it does not establish one universal federal deposit portal for all papers. For example, IES specifies ERIC for the covered full-text articles described above. NIH’s policy information explains its public-access requirements and PubMed Central pathway. Confirm the applicable rule before submitting, including which manuscript version is required and when deposit must occur.
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- Identify the agency and award that funded the work.
- Check the policy’s effective date against the manuscript’s relevant date, such as acceptance for publication.
- Find the required repository, deposit workflow and access deadline.
- Check what rights apply to the manuscript and whether the policy covers associated data.
- Follow legal, privacy, security and other restrictions on data disclosure.
Who pays for open-access publication charges?
Repository access does not necessarily mean a journal charges nothing. GAO reported that publishers are changing business models as subscription revenue shifts and may charge authors to make work open access. Agencies allow grant funds to cover such charges. GAO estimated potential government publishing fees could reach up to $1 billion per year, while noting that most agencies were not ready for the costs. That is an estimate of potential expense, not a measured annual bill or a guaranteed outcome. GAO report.
The OSTP memorandum says agencies should allow researchers, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, to include reasonable publication costs and costs for submission, data curation and data management in funding proposals. Stakeholders interviewed by GAO raised concerns that pay-to-publish models could encourage lower publication standards; GAO reports this as a stakeholder concern, not established evidence of causation. OSTP memorandum.
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