Funders are starting to recognize that the articles and data produced by the research they fund is most useful to society when it is made freely available to the public. Governments, foundations, charities, and other organizations are starting to require funded authors to make their articles and data available to the public.
SPARC provides a listing of government agencies and their article public access mandates, as well as their data access mandates.
Be sure to review any author's contract you sign to be sure you can share your work as required by your granting agency.
What Should You Do?
1. Check for funder access policies when you apply for grants. How long an embargo will the funder allow? Six months, a year, or should it be immediately available?
2. Confirm that journal publishers allows you to comply with the public access policy. Review the copyright transfer agreement or check the journal web site. Look for sections that allow you to check off your type of funding agency policy or mention deposit of your peer-reviewed manuscript in an institutional or public repository.
3. Do not sign publishing agreements that will not allow you to comply with the public access policy of your funders.
4. Retain a copy of your final, peer-reviewed manuscript, after changes but before publisher formatting. You will probably need this to comply with public access policies.
What about Data?
1. Data that supports tables and figures in your publications will need to be publicly accessible. There may also be requirements for how long you need to make your data available.
2. Check with your funder and grant description for data deposit requirements. You may be required to use a specific repository, or you may just need to provide the funder with a citation to the online location of your data.
