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OSTP: Public Access Policies for Federally Funded Research

Smithsonian Institution

Publications policy effective date: January 1, 2025 (intramural research only)
Data management and sharing policy effective date: January 1, 2025 (intramural research only)

SI’s Public Access Plan functions as its Public Access Policy. The plan requirements immediately went into effect when it was released and are applicable to intramural research. 

A Covered Publication shall be compliant when any one publicly accessible version exists. Each of the following establishes compliance with this plan for Covered Publications:

  1. Deposit of a publicly accessible version in Smithsonian Research Online (SRO).
  2. Publication in a journal that is published by a CHORUS Publisher Member, where the Publisher Member makes or licenses the Smithsonian to make a publicly accessible version of the Covered Publication available.
  3. Publication in a journal with a standard practice of releasing its articles/issues to open access, immediately or after a publisher-determined embargo.
  4. Deposit of a publicly accessible version in a U.S. government funder–designated repository.
  5. Publication in an established open access journal or periodical that makes the version of record available immediately, without embargo.
  6. For a preprint, being posted by the author on a discipline-supported server, by a publisher after submission and prior to publication, or in a Smithsonian repository/database.
  7. Verification by a trusted aggregation service (e.g., CHORUS) that a publicly accessible version of a Covered Publication is available online.
  8. Access through SRO link when SRO is not the chosen repository.

Each of the following establishes compliance with this plan for Covered Underlying Data:

  1. Deposit to a permanent, open, generalist or specialist, discipline-supported database/repository.
  2. Deposit to an open Smithsonian database/repository.
  3. Deposit to a U.S. government funder–designated database/repository.
  4. Publication by a publisher on an open database or repository as supplemental materials.
  5. Access through SRO link when SRO is not the chosen repository.