HHS releases public access plans for science funding agencies

"The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released implementation plans for sharing publications and data from research funded by five major agencies within the department. The plans build on the policy laid out in a 2013 White House memorandum, “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research” (PDF, 53KB). The plans are for the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) and the office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. The plans are expected to go into effect by the end of 2015. The department also released a document describing guiding principles underlying the agencies’ plans. In general, the agencies’ plans require that funded researchers make public the accepted manuscripts of articles within 12 months of publication, using PubMed Central. The agencies’ plans for sharing of data are not as fully developed, although researchers will be required to develop their own data sharing plans. The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition has provided an overview and analysis of the plans. Earlier, the Association of American Publishers issued a statement regarding the AHRQ implementation plan and related plans for NASA and the Department of Agriculture."