OSTP Memo Sets Goal of Public Access

"A recent memorandum issued by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) sets a goal of making direct results of federally funded science, including peer-reviewed publications and digital data, freely accessible to the public to the greatest extent possible, consistent with law and other objectives, including the continued availability of peer review. OSTP directs each Federal agency with over $100M in annual research expenditures to develop, within six months, a plan for public access, after consultation with stakeholders including researchers, universities, libraries, publishers, and representatives of other potential users. 

The memorandum, issued on February 22, comes in response to a petition submitted to the White House’s “We The People” website, which received more than 65,000 signatures. The memorandum urges agencies to cooperate on their plans, where appropriate, and directs that funds for implementation should come from within existing agency budgets. The memorandum has been generally greeted with cautious support from publishers of scientific journals. It specifically mentions the role that publishers play in organizing peer review, and allows agencies to craft policies suited to individual scientific fields and agency missions. In particular the memorandum gives a twelve-month embargo period as a guideline for public access to published papers, but allows stakeholders to petition for different embargo periods. In a statement on its website, APS similarly highlighted the important role that publishers play in the scientific enterprise...."