3.13 Access to Scientific Data and Publications

On February 22, 2013, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), Dr. John Holdren, issued a memorandum to all agency and department heads entitled, “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research.” The memo directed federal agencies with more than $100 million in annual conduct of research and development to develop plans for increasing public access to peer-reviewed scientific publications and digital data resulting from federally funded research investments.

Agency Implementation Plans

Within HHS, five operating divisions meet this threshold: the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ), and the Administration for Community Living (ACL). Additionally, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) is voluntarily developing a public access plan for their portfolio of funded projects. Each of the operating divisions has developed its own public access implementation plan, in accordance with the Department’s common approach.

Progress Report

In 2015, HHS launched its plans for implementing the public access policies http://www.hhs.gov/open/publicaccess/ .  Recently, the third progress report to the Office of Science and Technology Policy was published and all agencies are/ on track with their implementation efforts.  As of the issuance of this plan, more than 4 million scientific publications are found in PubMedCentral, the central archive of public access, and available for free use by the public.