Open access policies and mandates
Ensure your research complies with relevant policies
What is an open access policy?
An open access (OA) policy is a set of principles that a research funder, institution, or government enforces. OA mandates can require or recommend researchers provide free, immediate, and full access to published and peer-reviewed research. This is achieved by encouraging researchers to publish in open access publications, depositing their articles in an open access repository, or both. Some major open access policies include:
- Plan S
- NIH Public Access Policy
- NIH Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy
- OSTP Public Access Memorandum
All too often, paywalls prevent researchers, policymakers, and the public from accessing the results of research. Yet, taxpayers worldwide spend billions each year funding research. Open access policies can help widen access to research by asking authors to make their research accessible so everyone can learn from research findings. Moreover, open access policies help prevent needless delays that researchers, doctors, patients, students, entrepreneurs, and innovators, currently face.
Learn about open access policies, which apply to you, and what they might mean for your research career.
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Types of open access policies
Open access mandates can vary widely. Some OA policies are merely guidelines or recommendations; others are formal requirements that can result in penalties if you don’t adhere to the policy—for example, you may lose grant funding if you don’t comply. OA can differ in several key ways, namely:
- Type of mandating organization: Does the policy come from the researcher’s institution or funder, or is there a national directive?
- Timing of deposit: Does the policy require the research to be openly available immediately upon publication or after an embargo period?
- Type of copyright clause: Does the author retain copyright, or does copyright transfer to the publisher, and can copyright clauses be waivered?
How to comply with an open access policy
Before you submit your research to a publication, check whether your funder or research institution has any requirements about how you should publish your work. If you find out that your research is subject to an OA policy, review the policy in detail to find the answers to these vital questions.
Do I need to share my underlying data in addition to the final research output?
OA publications typically require you to share your underlying data and details of any software used to process the results. Many also require you to include a data availability statement with a link to the repository hosting the data. In some cases, openly sharing data may not be feasible due to ethical or security considerations or data protection issues. However, if you don’t provide the source data without reasonable justification, and if it is required, your manuscript will likely be rejected.
Is there a timeframe in which I need to share my research?
You may need to publish your research OA by a set deadline to comply with your funders OA policy. For example, in 2013, the U.S. government directed agencies awarding more than $100 million in research funding to develop OA policies that mandated researchers make funded research publicly available within 12 months of publication.
Is there a deadline for sharing my data?
You may need to deposit your data by a deadline to comply with your applicable OA policy. The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) mandates that “[s]hared scientific data should be made accessible as soon as possible, and no later than the time of an associated publication, or the end of the award/support period, whichever comes first”. Plan S, an influential open access policy adopted in Europe, also requires researchers to make all data immediately available through OA repositories if they are the result of state-funded research institutions or organizations.
What is a compliant open access publication?
A compliant OA publication meets the requirements set out in an OA policy introduced by a funder, institution, or government.
All F1000 publishing venues are fully open access and comply and support international open access mandates. As such, open access, immediate publication, and open data are all hallmarks of our own open access policies. Authors that don’t adhere to the requirements set out may fail our pre-publication checks, and their article may be rejected.
How are open access policies enforced?
How common are open access policies?
According to the Registry of Open Access Repositories Mandatory Archiving Policies (ROARMAP), over 1000 policies currently exist internationally. The ROARMAP is a searchable international registry that charts the growth of open access mandates adopted by universities, research institutions, and research funders.
The Americas and Europe continue to be the leading regions for OA adoption and enhancement, with the first and second highest number of OA policies, respectively. Together, these regions account for over 85% of OA policies.
The countries with the most OA policies currently are the U.S., with 148 OA policies, and the U.K., with 120. Together these two countries account for nearly 25% of global OA policies. Although, this could change significantly in just a few years, with Asian research powerhouses planning on introducing OA mandates within the next three years. In turn, this could position the region as a leader in OA adoption as home to four of the top ten research-producing countries worldwide (China, Japan, South Korea, and India).
Universities and other research institutions lead the way in OA policy creation and implementation. Currently, this type of policymaker is responsible for nearly 80% of all OA policies worldwide. Funders and sub-units of research organizations, such as departments, account for 8% and 7% of OA policies, respectively.
The rise of open access policies
Data sharing policies
There has been a steady growth of both research and data sharing policies worldwide due to a variety of factors. Events such as the global COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the value of immediate access to research data. In addition, governments, institutions, and funders are steadily recognizing their role in encouraging and facilitating data access and sharing, resulting in increased policies and frameworks.
The implementation of OA policies by national funding bodies such as the NIH has been a key turning point. As of 2023, NIH-funded researchers are mandated to publish their research and data OA.
Major open access policies globally
Some of the most widely recognized OA policies are:
Plan S
Launched in September 2018, Plan S is an OA initiative launched by cOAlition S, a European consortium of organizations that conduct and fund research. Plan S requires publications that derive from research funded by public grants to be published OA.
NIH Public Access Policy
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and it is the nation’s medical research agency. The NIH Public Access Policy requires NIH-funded researchers to submit final peer-reviewed manuscripts to the digital archive PubMed Central.
NIH Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy
Introduced in early 2023, the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing requires all scientific data generated by NIH-funded researchers to be shared in a timely manner for use by the research community and broader public.
OSTP Public Access Memorandum
Established in 1976, The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is a U.S. government department. In 2022, the OSTP issued guidance to make all federally funded research freely available without delay. All agencies are expected to fully implement their updated policies by December 31, 2025.
Why comply with open access policies?
Support reproducibility
When you make your data and code openly available, you support reproducibility by enabling researchers in your field and beyond to reuse and verify your research, playing a key role in upholding research integrity.
Citation advantage
Research shows that OA content attracts more attention and citations than non-OA content, with some studies reporting that open data sharing is associated with up to 25% more citations.
Continued funding
If you choose not to publish your research OA, you could risk losing funding. Increasingly, funders worldwide are implementing mandates to publish OA, monitoring author compliance, and penalizing researchers that are not publishing OA by suspending funding.
Enhance reach and discoverability
By publishing your research openly, you enable researchers, funders, policymakers, and the general public to access and discover your research so they can use it to make a real difference.
What are the costs, and who will pay?
Typically, you will be required to pay a fee to publish fully open access (Gold OA). This is referred to as an Article Processing Charge (APC). The cost to publish OA can vary across OA publications but is usually paid by the author, funder, institution, or a combination of sources. One factor that can impact how much it costs to publish OA is the type of article you wish to publish. Some article types may cost more to publish OA to reflect the effort involved in processing and publishing different article types.
All F1000 Platforms provide a transparent breakdown of APCs, which vary by article type. The F1000Research APCs are broken down by article type, which you can view on the publishing Platform.
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