No turning back on global open access | The BMJ

by Virginia Barbour, Dimity Flanagan, Kim Tairi

US government sends a strong signal

On 25 August 2022, the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the US White House issued guidance requiring, from 2026, immediate public access to federally funded research publications and the data behind them.1 This is the probably the most consequential in a trajectory of open access policies that have been building pressure for wholesale change. In 2013 President Barack Obama’s office issued guidance requiring public access to research funded by the largest agencies, although he allowed a 12 month embargo—a reflection of concerted lobbying by publishers in the US.2 In 2016, while vice president, Joe Biden acknowledged the limitations of that guidance when discussing access to research in his cancer moonshot initiative: “Tell me how [publisher paywalls are] moving the process along more rapidly.”3

In 2018 the policy initiative passed to Europe, when a group of funders (Coalition S) announced Plan S, requiring immediate and full open access to their funded research, with a clear roadmap for implementation from 2021.4 The covid-19 pandemic provided further momentum for free access. The White House and many international science agencies explicitly called for immediate access to covid-19 research in 2020.5 Unesco’s open science recommendation in 2021 provided further impetus.6

The 2022 White House guidance is the culmination of these preceding policies, but with a US policy lens applied to it—that the US public can access research that its taxes fund. Some US publishers have complained about lack of consultation,7 but it’s hard to take this seriously. Since open access was first defined in 2003, it has been clear to any attentive observer that what remained was when and how open access would become the norm.

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