Thread by Peter Suber

twitter.com
1 Recommender
1 Mention
Recommend
Post
Save
Complete
Collect
Thread
1/ This is big. @WHOSTP is calling on all federal research funding agencies to adopt #openaccess policies. If they already have OA policies, they must strengthen them to meet the new guidelines. I'll add some summary points in a thread below.

2/ Here's the new (8/25/22) @WHOSTP memorandum.
www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-Access-Memo.pdf

It updates and strengthens a 2013 @WHOSTP memorandum from the Obama White House. For background, here's the 2013 memo.
obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf
3/ TLDR. Here are the four biggest changes:
* No more embargoes. New policies must require immediate or unembargoed OA.
* New policies must cover data too.
* All fed funding agencies must now adopt policies, not just the largest ones.
* The new policies are all green.
4/ The Obama memo only applied to the largest funding agencies (those funding $100m or more in extramural research). The @NEHgov was just a bit too small to make it. The Biden memo covers all fed funding agencies. So for the first time, fed OA policies will cover the humanities.
5/ The new policies must cover peer-reviewed publications and data. If they want, agencies can go further and cover "peer-reviewed book chapters, editorials, and peer-reviewed conference proceedings."
6/ The peer-reviewed publications must be deposited in "agency-designated" OA repositories and in "formats that allow for machine-readability and enabling broad accessibility through assistive devices."
7/ The no-embargo rule applies to data too, not just to texts. Data must be open at the time of publication. (Which data exactly? Data "underlying peer-reviewed publications resulting from federally funded research".)
8/ Agencies covered by the 2013 Obama memo have six months to submit draft updates to their existing OA policies. Agencies not already covered have one year.
9/ Agencies must "coordinate…to enhance efficiency & reduce redundancy in…plans and policies." This matters because US universities will have to comply with all of them. Policies may have to differ, to reflect disciplinary differences. But the less they differ, the better.
10/ The draft new agency policies will be reviewed by @WHOSTP and @OMBPress. Coordination among the agencies will be managed by the National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Open Science.
@WHOSTP @OMBPress 11/ Publishing in an OA journal will not count toward compliance. Covered works must be made green OA in the right way (designated repository, no embargo). This is 100% compatible with gold OA. But gold OA is not necessary and not sufficient.
12/ @SPARC_NA just issued its press release on the OSTP action.
sparcopen.org/news/2022/taxpayers-to-get-immediate-access-to-publicly-funded-research/
13/ I should have remembered to associate this thread with the hashtag, #OAintheUSA.
14/ @SPARC_NA also just released its Fact Sheet on the OSTP action.
sparcopen.org/our-work/2022-updated-ostp-policy-guidance/fact-sheet-white-house-ostp-memo-on-ensuring...
15/ From the new @WHOSTP memo: "The insights of new and cutting-edge research stemming from the support of federal agencies should be immediately available —not just in moments of crisis, but in every moment." [more in next]
16/ "Not only to fight a pandemic, but to advance all areas of study, including urgent issues such as cancer, clean energy, economic disparities, and climate change."
17/ The @NIH just released its supportive response. "NIH will work expeditiously to develop and share its plans for implementing the OSTP policy guidance."
www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director/statements/statement-nih-plans-speed-access-federally-f...
18/ The headline & 1st paragraph of this @nytimes story are misleading. The new fed policies will not regulate journals or publishers. They will regulate grantees (by modifying the terms of fed research grants).
www.nytimes.com/2022/08/25/us/white-house-federally-funded-research-access.html
19/ It's important to distinguish what the agency policies will require from what publishers will do to respond or adapt.
Mentions
See All