In February 2013, The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a memorandum to all agency and department heads directing federal agencies with more than $100 million in annual research and development spending to establish plans for increasing public access to peer-reviewed scientific publications and digital data resulting from federally funded research.

Following the NIH Public Access Policy’s lead, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, will now require authors of peer-reviewed journal articles arising from agency funding to be deposited into a central repository using the NIH Manuscript Submission System. All articles must be electronically accessible to the public within 12 months of publication. For the CDC, the policy applies to all manuscripts published after July 15, 2013. For AHRQ, publications from research funded from February 2015 onward must be submitted. Beginning October 2015, digital data arising from these funding agencies must also have a data management plan available.

Faculty librarians at the HS/HSL can assist researchers in determining their compliance status and provide support in taking steps to deposit federally funded research articles into the central repository. Please visit our website for detailed instructions on the process or contact us at nihcompliance@hshsl.umaryland.edu.