The U.S. Geological Survey recently released its Public Access Plan in compliance with the White House Directive. The plan, which takes effect on October 1, 2016, builds upon the USGS’s existing requirements or activities to increase public access to the publications and data arising from USGS-funded research. Here are the highlights:
Publications
The plan requires that:
- final, peer-reviewed, accepted manuscripts for journal articles (or the final published version of record) be made openly accessible no later than 12 months following publication;
- the full text of papers be made available either from the USGS Information Product Data System archive or the publisher’s website.
Data
The USGS also requires that:
- all new research proposals include a data management plan, and
- all supporting research data be made publicly available simultaneously with or prior to the associated publication.
In addition, regardless of the chosen repository for sharing data, associated metadata must be indexed in the USGS Science Data Catalog, ensuring a consistent mechanism for public discovery of the data.
The Libraries can help you comply with these new requirements:
- For assistance in creating your data management plan for any of the agencies, or for any aspect of complying with funder data sharing requirements, contact the Libraries’ data management team.
- To ensure authors retain sufficient rights to allow for manuscript deposit, authors may use an amendment to publication agreements specifically designed to accommodate the requirements of the White House Directive.
- Major funder policies that affect MIT researchers will be summarized on the scholarly publishing website as they emerge.
If you have comments or questions, contact:
- For publications: oarequirements@mit.edu
- For data: the MIT Libraries’ data management team
