[SPARC response to NSF open access plan under the Nelson Memo]

"To avoid doubt on this issue, we recommend that NSF require grantees, as a term and condition of funding agreements, to ensure that the agency receives a license to funded publications sufficient for NSF to grant the public reuse rights. This is the most straightforward approach that minimizes complexity and burden in compliance by grantee institutions and authors. NSF could rely on its existing authority under 2 CFR 200.315(b), or it could require grantees to ensure that NSF receives an analogous additional license that specifically provides the right to grant the public reuse rights to agency publications covered by the Public Access Policy. Requiring that this additional license be granted as a term and condition of funding ensures that NSF receives its additional license at the moment the publication is created, which is how the longstanding federal purpose license operates. In this way, even if an author from the grantee institution signs a publication agreement that conflicts with the agency’s license, the agency’s license remains intact, as is the case with the agency’s federal purpose license.

We also recommend the agency develop author guidance and template language that can be attached to or included with the publication, either by the author or PAR staff, to indicate the publication is available under an open license such as the CC BY license or its functional equivalent.

A more thorough explanation of this recommendation is available here: https://sparcopen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Public-Access-with-Reuse-Rights.pdf "