US government to make all research it funds open access on publication

Before the policy changes are announced, many of them are well known. Early access to reporters at major publications, as well as hints in speeches and leaks, help to pave the way for confirmation. TheOSTP dropped a big one that seemed to take everyone by surprise. All scientific publications that receive federal funding will need to be accessible on the day they are published.

It has the potential to shake up the scientific publishing industry, which has already adopted preprint archives, similar mandates from other funding organizations, and greatly expanded access to publications during the Pandemic.

Alondra Nelson, acting head of the OSTP, made the announcement. The policy is outlined in a memo.

An awkward history

The US government is likely to spend a lot of money on scientific research. The US National Institute of Health spends more on medical research than any other organization. The scientific publishing system was created so that the government didn't have access to the research it was funding. The work was published in a paid journal.

The limitation has been undermined by two trends. Open-access journals charge an up-front fee to the researchers and then give anyone with internet service access to the final research publication. The trend is towardprints. Researchers in physics and astronomy have pioneered the use of preprint server to give access to manuscripts. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, their use in the biological sciences increased greatly.

The finances of the entire publishing industry were worried by some people involved in scientific publishing. There was tension in the halls of Congress where there were competing legislation. During the Obama administration, there was a truce. Publishers could either make the publication open access from the beginning or have subscription-only access for a year. Government-sponsored repository were opened to host copies of papers that weren't open to the public.

There has been a lot of growth in open access journals and many subscription journals allow authors to pay a fee to immediately open published papers. Open access papers related to COVID were offered by most subscription journals. According to OSTP, the industry has been prepared to survive even higher access levels.

Wide open

The payoffs of doing so would be large according to OSTP. Nelson said that research can save lives, give policymakers the tools to make critical decisions, and drive more equitable outcomes. According to the policy document, the benefits of immediate public access are even better than a year of subscription only.

Smaller agencies have one year to submit a revised policy to OSTP under the new policy. It is required that any publications resulting from this funding be deposited in public repositories on the day they appear in a scientific journal. They can still be found in subscription-only journals, but they need to be made public. Data used in the publication must be put in a public accessible repository.

Information on everyone involved in the publication must be available in the repository by the end of the year. The data and documentation associated with publications need to have a DOI associated with them. All of the policies have to be implemented by the end of the century.

Authors can deposit pre-publication versions of their papers, and publishers can still add value through the use of graphics and movies, as well as justifying the price of subscription. The option of charging fees for publishing papers in open access form is still available. The scientific publishing industry will not be killed off overnight.

On the day of publication, a parallel copy is available. Having a system to identify and access the underlying data could be more significant in the long run. Publishers currently require relevant data to be shared, but there's no formal way to enforce that requirement. It can be changed by making it a condition of funding.

Enforcement of the new requirements will be the key to the program's success. Many of the people involved in the paper have already moved on to other projects. Taking the time to put their earlier work into a repository doesn't give obvious rewards, so there will have to be some enforcement mechanism to drive adoption.