Comply with funder requirements

Many research funders require sharing of articles and/or data that result from research they fund. Learn more about how to understand funder policies and find resources for sharing your research.

Federal funder public access requirements the role of researchers

University of Minnesota researchers are responsible for knowing and complying with their funding agency’s requirements.

The 2022 White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum directed all federal funding bodies to have in place a policy requiring immediate public access to freely access and use publications and data resulting from the research they fund by January 1, 2026. This update to 2013 OSTP guidance eliminates the previous 12-month embargo on making articles and data open.

Publications

All publications resulting in whole or in part from federal research funding must immediately be made publicly available in the agency or department’s designated repository. See Resources for federally funded researchers, below, for information on how to locate your funder’s policy.

Additional updates to federal policies, including requirements for using persistent identifiers for publications, such as ORCID, are expected in 2027.

Data

Libraries’ Research Data Services (RDS) offers review of data management and sharing (DMS) plans for applications to all funders. They also assist with implementation of DMS plans by helping researchers locate the most appropriate repository for their data—whether it be the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM) or another space—and advising on curation of data prior to sharing.

Resources for federally funded research

The following resources can help researchers comply with federal funding requirements.

Please note that these tools may not always reflect recent policy changes. Check these results against your notice of grant award to confirm your funder’s current policy.

Data Sharing Requirements by Federal Agency (SPARC): tool for viewing and comparing policies across federal funding bodies.
2022 OSTP Public Access Memo Guidance (SPARC): current list of funder policies.
University of Minnesota Open Access Policy: offers another path for authors to comply with funder policies. Similar to the Government Use License (see below) it acts as a prior license, enabling authors to deposit their scholarly articles into non-commercial repositories without embargo.
Guide for Authors Complying with U.S. Federal Agency Public Access and Publisher Policies (SPARC): outlines author compliance options at various points in the research and publishing process.
Publishers and Journals Allowing Green OA Without an Embargo (Penn State): list of publishers whose default policy aligns with federal funder requirements.
NIH Public Access Policy 2025 (UMN Libraries): provides details for researchers on policy compliance.
NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy 2023 (UMN Libraries): provides details for researchers policy compliance.
Open Policy Finder (Jisc): tool used to identify journals and other publication venues that comply with funder requirements.

Additional funder requirements

Foundations and other research funders may also have public or open access requirements. Examples include:

The Open Policy Finder (Jisc) can be used to identify journals and other publication venues that comply with funder requirements. Check these results against your notice of grant award to confirm your funder’s current policy.

Licensing your work for reuse

Federal funder policies do not require a fee for authors to deposit their accepted manuscripts into the required repository and provide authors with a no-cost route via the Government Use (or “Federal Purpose”) License (2 CFR 200.315). However, in response to this new federal requirement, some journal publishers now require authors who receive U.S. federal funding to pay publishing fees. For any journal, authors should check to see if the journal will deposit a copy automatically—with no embargo—or if they will need to manually deposit their article.

By accepting federal funding, researchers grant the funding agency a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use the work (including author accepted manuscripts) for federal purposes and to authorize others to do so. The Government Use License acts as a “prior license” that goes into effect immediately upon signing a federal funding grant agreement.

For researchers that do not have federal funding, the University of Minnesota Open Access Policy offers a similar path for authors to comply with funder policies. Contact the Libraries’ Copyright Information Service for more information.

Contact

For more information about publication policies, contact [email protected].

For more information about data sharing policies, contact [email protected].

For more information about licensing your work and copyright consultations, contact [email protected].