Office of Science and Technology Policy

OSTP Public Access Policy Forum

UPDATE: January 9, 2017 - On January 9, 2017, OSTP Director John P. Holdren transmitted an update to Congress outlining progress toward the development and implementation of policies to increase public access to the results of federally funded scientific research. 

  • Read the progress update here.

UPDATE: October 31, 2016 - On October 31, 2016, OSTP Director John P. Holdren transmitted an update to Congress outlining progress toward the development and implementation of policies to increase public access to the results of federally funded scientific research. 

  • Read the progress update here.

UPDATE: JULY 22, 2016 - On July 22, 2016, OSTP Director John P. Holdren transmitted an update to Congress outlining progress toward the development and implementation of policies to increase public access to the results of federally funded scientific research.

  • Read the progress update here.

UPDATE: April 29, 2016 - On April 29, 2016, OSTP Director John P. Holdren transmitted an update to Congress outlining progress toward the development and implementation of policies to increase public access to the results of federally funded scientific research.

  • Read the progress update here.

UPDATE: January 29, 2016 - On January 29, 2016, OSTP Director John P. Holdren transmitted an update to Congress outlining progress toward the development and implementation of policies to increase public access to the results of federally funded scientific research.

  • Read the progress update here.

UPDATE: October 28, 2015 - On October 28, 2015, OSTP Director John P. Holdren transmitted an update to Congress outlining progress toward the development and implementation of policies to increase public access to the results of federally funded scientific research.

  • Read the progress update here.

UPDATE: July 29, 2015 - On July 29, 2015, OSTP Director John P. Holdren transmitted an update to Congress outlining progress toward the development and implementation of policies to increase public access to the results of federally funded scientific research.

  • Read the progress update here.

UPDATE: April 8, 2015 - On April 8, 2015, OSTP Director John P. Holdren transmitted an update to Congress outlining progress toward the development and implementation of policies to increase public access to the results of federally funded scientific research.

  • Read the progress update here.

UPDATE: November 13, 2014 - On November 13, 2014, OSTP Director John P. Holdren transmitted an update to Congress outlining progress toward the development and implementation of policies to increase public access to the results of federally funded scientific research.

  • Read the progress update here.

February 22, 2013 -  The Obama Administration is committed to the proposition that citizens deserve easy access to the results of scientific research their tax dollars have paid for. That's why, in a policy memorandum released today, OSTP Director John Holdren has directed Federal agencies with more than $100M in R&D expenditures to develop plans to make the published results of federally funded research freely available to the public within one year of publication and requiring researchers to better account for and manage the digital data resulting from federally funded scientific research. OSTP has been looking into this issue for some time, soliciting broad public input on multiple occasions and convening an interagency working group to develop a policy. The final policy reflects substantial inputs from scientists and scientific organizations, publishers, members of Congress, and other members of the public—over 65 thousand of whom recently signed a We the People petition asking for expanded public access to the results of taxpayer-funded research.

  • Read the Policy Memo here.
  • Read OSTP Director Holdren’s response to the We the People petition here.

March 8, 2010 - OSTP Blog: Public Access Policy Update

OSTP launched a Public Access Policy Forum on Dec. 10, 2009. The forum was designed to be a public consultation on access to publicly funded research results, such as those that appear in academic and scholarly journal articles. In response to your pleas, the forum was extended past its initial Jan. 7 deadline and closed on Jan. 21, 2010.

Since then you may have noticed some changes in OSTP’s online presence—including the disappearance of the hundreds of comments submitted during the course of the forum. Here’s what happened: After the forum closed, we transitioned from http://blog.ostp.gov—the site we used to host the forum—to our new blog at http://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/ostp/blog. As we noted in the introductory message on our new site, not all of our old content migrated with us, and we are still in the process of moving it to our new digs and integrating comment functionality.

Of course, before we closed up shop we made sure to capture all of the input from our previous host, and we are gradually reposting that content.

Today we are posting two valuable resources that are direct products of the Public Access Policy Forum. While we continue the process of analyzing the literature and comments, below you will find all of the blog posts and their respective comments, as well as never-before-seen submissions that were sent directly to our publicaccess@ostp.gov inbox.

The past month-and-a-half has given OSTP staff the chance to sift through the mounds of fantastic input we received. We were very gratified by the amount of participation the forum generated and are diligently scouring through the data to find common themes, dissenting opinions, concerns, and suggestions that will ultimately help us craft policy recommendations.

We’d like to again thank all of you who have contributed so generously to this process, and we look forward to reporting back on our progress toward developing policy recommendations. This has been an example of the true potential of democracy through the foundations of open government—transparency, collaboration, and participation.

Original blog posts with attached comments:

PublicAccess@ostp.gov submissions: