Federal Research: Additional Actions Needed to Improve Public Access to Research Results

"Public access to the results of federally funded research can accelerate scientific breakthroughs. In 2013, certain federal agencies were directed to create plans for increasing access to publications and data they funded.

The 19 agencies we reviewed made progress, but some have not fully implemented their plans. For example:

• 7 agencies have not taken steps to make data findable, such as creating a single web access point
• 4 don’t require all researchers to submit a plan to provide access to data
• 11 don’t fully ensure that researchers comply with access requirements

We made 37recommendations to 16 agencies to address these and other issues...."