NSF Public Access Policy – Georgia Tech OSP Campus Update 2016

What I need to know

In the newest PAPPG, NSF announced a public access policy which applies to new awards resulting from proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 25, 2016 which is the effective date of the latest Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG). NSF already requires that each proposal submitted to the agency include a data management plan [DMP], as set forth in the Grant Proposal Guide.

NSF will require that either the version of record or the final manuscript as accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal or in a juried conference proceedings or transactions must:

Be deposited in a public access compliant repository designated by NSF;
Be available for download, reading and analysis free of charge no later than 12 months after initial publication;
Possess a minimum set of machine-readable metadata elements in a metadata record to be made available free of charge upon initial publication;
Be managed to ensure long-term preservation; and
Be reported in annual and final reports during the period of the award with a persistent identifier that provides links to the full text of the publication as well as other metadata elements.

Proposals

Be sure to talk with your NSF program manager to get any program or directorate-specific guidance about data management plans. The GT library can assist you in developing a data management plan for sharing and archiving research data.

Award

Investigators must manage data from projects that awarded from proposals that include a DMP in accordance with the plan and should report these data-related activities in annual and final project reports including the deposit into NSF’s Public Access Repository (PAR). Investigators should ensure that interim or working data is backed up during the project performance period; consult your school’s IT director for additional guidance on this matter.

Compliance

ICOL Notices will remind you of the requirement when an award is made. For publications that result from projects subject to NSF’s public access policy, submit the paper into the NSF PAR and report the identifier in a NSF Annual or Final report. [See the ‘How to Deposit in the PAR’ below.] This NSF requirement will simultaneously fulfill the Georgia Tech Open Access Policy. See NSF FAQs 10 & 11 for definitions of final accepted version and version of record.