OTSP Director John Holdren talks to President Obama in this undated White House photo.
One day after we posted big news about dual Open Access bills in the US and Illinois Senates, the Office of Technology and Science Policy issued a policy memorandum that will essentially enact an Open Access policy similar to the NIH Public Access policy for all federal agencies with more than $100 million in their R&D budget. This policy will not only affect publications, but also the data resulting from funded research.
Many in the Open Access advocacy community are celebrating the announcement as proof of the success of the #OAMonday/Access2Research movement and the resulting “We the People” petition, which solicited a positive (if long-overdue) response from Holdren.
Researcher Joe Hourcle, on the RDAP listserv, has distilled the policy into these essential points:
- Must give a plan in 6 months on how they’re going to improve public access to publications & data
- Can have an embargo after publication (baseline is 12 months)
- No charges for access to the article metadata
- Grants can include costs for data management & access
The Dryad repository blog explores in a bit more detail exactly what this might mean for data sharing and publication.
It remains to be seen how this surprising and groundbreaking new policy will take effect.
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