Research funders share several broad goals outside their specific objective of curing cancer or improving vehicle efficiency. The move to share research outputs broadly started with the 2008 NIH Public Access Policy, requiring research articles supported with NIH funding to be made publicly available within one year of publication. In August 2022, the Nelson OSTP Memo required all federal funding agencies to implement a public access policy and plan by 2025.

Other funders, both public and private, are now requiring their researchers to publicly share articles, data, code, protocols, and other information freely and openly.

Why are funders requiring this open sharing? There are several reasons:

• research supported by the government should be available to the taxpayers
• research should be available to everyone, to improve all lives
• research that studies human populations should be accessible to those populations
• increase the efficiency of the scientific endeavor
• support reproducibility
• promote the reputation of the funders

If you'd like help complying with a funder mandate, the best place to start is with the granting agency or your research office.

Assistance can also be found by contacting:

• Johns Hopkins Libraries Data Management Services
• Laurel Crawford, Manager of Collections Strategy, Sheridan Libraries
• Nancy Shin, Scholarly Communications Librarian, Welch Medical Library
• Librarians at your home library: Welch Medical Library, Sheridan Libraries, Mason Library, Friedheim Library