Outcomes, Questions, and Answers: “The Right to Deposit (R2D) Uniform guidance to ensure author compliance and public access”

Abstract:  With the forthcoming release of new federal agency public access plans as a result of the White House Office of Science and Technology Planning (OSTP) public access guidance (“the Nelson memo”), federally-funded authors will face new requirements to deposit their scholarly publications, without an embargo, in agency-designated public access repositories. These requirements will impact authors and their institutions. Federal agencies could improve clarity for authors by adopting the Federal purpose license found in existing federal regulations as a foundation for guidance language and implementation of the Nelson memo. Specifically, the Federal purpose license states that, “The Federal awarding agency reserves a royalty-free, nonexclusive and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use the work for Federal purposes, and to authorize others to do so.