NIH Releases Public Access Plan and RFI for Research Findability and Transparency

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has released the final version of its public access policy in response to the August 2022 memorandum issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The memorandum announced new requirements for federal agencies to make peer-reviewed publications resulting from federal funding freely available to the public immediately following publication (see previous COSSA coverage). The new policy, finalized from the draft released in June 2024 (see previous COSSA coverage), is set to take effect on December 31, 2025, and provides clarification on the definitions of Article, Manuscript, Final Published Article, Official Date of Publication, and other terms in response to comments received from the stakeholder community. A detailed list of changes made to the public access policy, including summaries of the comments that led to the changes, can be found here.

Further, the NIH issued a request for information (RFI) seeking comments on a new plan to promote research findability and transparency, in response to the section “Mechanisms to Increase Findability and Transparency of Research” within the 2022 memorandum. The plan includes a commitment to “deliver on the promise of the Nation’s investment in research” through requiring NIH researchers to publicly identify research methods, basic information, (i.e. the location and timing of the research conducted), and how the research was funded. The plan also promotes the use of metadata, indicating intent to standardize the process across the NIH to allow researchers, clinicians, students, and other members of the community to more easily access research. The NIH is expected to adopt this plan with a new policy by December 31, 2026.

Comments are requested by February 21 and should be submitted here.