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- Publishing your Research Article: Science and Engineering
- Meet Public Access Requirements
Publishing your Research Article: Science and Engineering : Meet Public Access Requirements
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Meet Public Access Requirements
This page provides resources on the following topics to help you comply with your funder's public access requirements:
- Public Access and Funder Mandates
- UW-Madison Public Access Compliance Services
- Public Access vs. Open Access
Public Access & Funder Mandates
Some funding agencies require that published research results enabled by their grants be made available to the general public, usually on the internet. Public access mandates generally apply to journal articles whose publication is a direct result of research performed under the grant as well as to research data generated during, or as a result of, the research process (with some exceptions and limitations).
Below are selected resources to find specific information about federal funder requirements for articles and/or data. Please note that you should also visit the funder information pages directly.
- Browse Article and Data Sharing Requirements by Federal AgencyThis community resource for tracking, comparing, and understanding both current and future U.S. federal funder research data sharing policies is a joint project of SPARC & Johns Hopkins University Libraries.
- Federal Agency Public Access RequirementsResource maintained by UW-Madison Public Access Service
- Federal Funding Requirements (Articles and Data)Resource maintained by UW-Madison Research Data Services (RDS)
- Private Funder Public Access RequirementsResource maintained by UW-Madison Public Access Service
- Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies (ROARMAP)Searchable international registry charting the growth of open access mandates and policies adopted by universities, research institutions and research funders that require or request their researchers to provide open access to their peer-reviewed research article output by depositing it in an open access repository.
UW-Madison Public Access Compliance Services
UW-Madison provides services to help researchers comply with funder public access and journal requirements. Visit the links below for more information.
- UW-Madison Public Access ServiceHelps researchers navigate this legal public access requirements through consultation, training, and submitting manuscripts to funders on behalf of investigators
- UW-Madison Research Data Services (RDS)Helps researchers draft a plan to meet data public access requirements from federal funders and for journal publication
Public Access vs. Open Access
It is important to note that Public Access is not the same as Open Access. Here are the differences:
Public Access:
- Refers specifically to funder mandates to make research outputs accessible to the public
- Research outputs must be placed in a specific repository
Open Access (OA):
- Publication is freely available online and often carries less restrictive copyright and licensing barriers than traditionally published works
- Publishing in an OA journal does not necessarily meet a funder’s public access policy
Article Process Charges (APC's): .
- Neither complying with funder public access requirements nor publishing open access necessarily requires authors to pay a fee
- Gold Open Access publications (in which the article “version of record” is made publicly available directly in the publisher’s standard website) often do require author fees, but not always
- Many publishers routinely allow authors to make the “accepted manuscript” (post peer-review) version of the article available in a repository. This allowance enables both Green Open Access and enables authors to comply with their funder public access policies
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