Rice Author Open Access Support: Federal Public Access Policies
2022 OSTP Memo
In August 2022, the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a memorandum (often referred to as the Nelson Memo) on "Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research," updating the 2013 OSTP memorandum on increasing access to the results of federally funded research.
The 2022 memo provides guidance on updating public access policies to federal agencies with research and development expenditures. The OSTP directs agencies to implement updated policies no later than December 31, 2025, to make publications and their supporting data resulting from federally funded research publicly accessible without an embargo. For more information, please read the full 2022 OSTP Memo. For details about specific agency plans, please see SPARC's policy tracker.
Fondren Library and other units across campus are monitoring emerging funder public access polices and their impact on Rice researchers. Links to relevant Rice resources can be found below.
Library staff are also available for consultations on navigating funder policies, writing a data management plan, understanding copyright and licensing, ORCID, and identifying appropriate publication and data repositories. Please contact us at openaccess@rice.edu.
Fondren Library Resources
- Research Data ServicesThe Research Data Services team supports Rice researchers by providing training and consultation throughout the research data lifecycle. Our goal is to facilitate practices that ensure data integrity, optimize efficiency, enable scaling, and broaden the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reuse of research data.
- NIH Data Management and Sharing PlanThis guide includes an overview of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Policy for Data Management and Sharing (DMS) (effective January 25, 2023) and resources to support researchers who are developing a data management and sharing plan.
- DMP ToolThe DMP Tool is a free, open-source, application that helps researchers create data management plans (DMPs). These plans are required by many funding agencies as part of the grant proposal submission process. The DMP Tool provides a click-through wizard for creating a DMP that complies with funder requirements. It also has direct links to funder websites, help text for answering questions, and data management best practices resources. Sign in using your NetID and password for Rice-specific help text.
- ORCIDResources for creating and using ORCID iDs.
Rice Resources
- Office of Research DevelopmentSupport researchers as they conceptualize, develop, and write proposals to federal agencies and other entities to seek funding for research projects.
- Office of Sponsored Projects Pre-Award Administration Services (OPAS)Provides Pre-Award services to assist faculty with the administrative process for developing and submitting proposals.