1

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

PLAN TO ESTABLISH PUBLIC ACCESS 

TO THE RESULTS OF FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH 

February 2015
1

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

1. BACKGROUND and PURPOSE............................................................................................ 1

2. PROJECTED SCOPE.............................................................................................................. 2

3. PROJECTED REQUIREMENTS ........................................................................................... 2

3.1 Peer Reviewed Scholarly Publications .........................................................................................2

3.2 Digitally Formatted Scientific Datasets........................................................................................2

4. DEFINITIONS [proposed]:..................................................................................................... 4

5. PROJECTED APPLICABILITY ............................................................................................ 6

6. POTENTIALLY RELEVANT STATUTES, REGULATIONS, and ISSUANCES .............. 6

7. PROSPECTIVE ROLES ......................................................................................................... 7

7.1 Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD(AT&L)): ..........7

7.2 The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)): ......................7

7.3 Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC)............................................................................8

7.4 Heads of DoD Components: .........................................................................................................8

7.5 Authors:.........................................................................................................................................9

8. IMPLEMENTATION ............................................................................................................. 9

8.1 Planning ........................................................................................................................................9

8.2 Timeline ......................................................................................................................................10

8.3 Submission..................................................................................................................................12

9. MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................................. 12

9.1 Peer Reviewed Scholarly Journal Publications...........................................................................12

9.2 Digitally Formatted Scientific Data ............................................................................................13

9.3 Access and Discoverability.........................................................................................................14

9.4 Preservation.................................................................................................................................15

10. METRICS, COMPLIANCE and EVALUATION: ........................................................... 15

11. PUBLIC CONSULTATION EXPERIENCE.................................................................... 16

12. INTERAGENCY COORDINATION ............................................................................... 16

13. PUBLIC NOTICE.............................................................................................................. 16

14. UPDATE AND RE-EVALUATION OF THE PLAN ...................................................... 17

15. TIMELINE FOR IMPLEMENTATION ........................................................................... 17

16. RESOURCES .................................................................................................................... 17

17. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION...................................................................................... 18
1

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

DoD Plan to Establish Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research

February 2015

1. BACKGROUND and PURPOSE

This document is a draft plan submitted to Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in 

accordance with the requirement specified in section 2 of the February 22, 2013 memorandum 

“Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research.” It is a proposed 

approach or plan that does not impose any requirements or responsibilities on any Department of 

Defense (DoD) component. New policy and guidance will be issued in accordance with DoD 

Instruction 5025.01 “DoD Issuances Program,” and will be published in title 32 Code of Federal 

Regulations (CFR), as appropriate. DoD policy for intramural research will be established 

through amendments to the DoD Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP) issuances 

DoD Instruction (DoDI) 3200.12 "DoD Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Program 

(STIP)" and DoD Manual (DoDM) 3200.14 “Principles and Operational Parameters of the DoD 

Scientific and Technical Information Program.” Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation 

Supplement (DFARS) (48 CFR §§ 200-299) and Department of Defense Grant and Agreement 

Regulations (DoDGARS) (32 CFR, Chapter I, Subchapter C and 2 CFR, Chapter XI) will be 

revised for extramural research programs.

This document describes the DoD proposed draft plan that provides an approach to support 

increased public access to peer reviewed scholarly publications and digitally formatted scientific 

data arising from unclassified publicly releasable research and programs funded wholly or in part 

by the DoD, as directed by OSTP Memorandum: “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally 

Funded Scientific Research”, dated 22 February 2013 and the Undersecretary of Defense for 

Acquisition Technology and Logistics (USD(AT&L)) Memorandum: “Public Access to the 

Results of Department of Defense-Funded Research,” dated 9 July 2014. A primary mission of 

Defense research is to safeguard national security and maintain technological superiority of the 

U. S. military through advances in science, technology and engineering. By providing greater 

public access to DoD funded research, the Department seeks to encourage and accelerate 

scientific breakthroughs and innovation of potential interest to DoD in carrying out its mission. 

A robust industrial base and commercialization of DoD technologies will also benefit

entrepreneurship, and enhance economic growth and job creation. Through the approach 

described in this proposed plan, DoD intends to promote the following objectives: 

 Establish DoD’s commitment to public access to scientific research results. 

 Support governance of and best practices for managing scholarly publications and 

digitally formatted scientific data across the DoD. 

 Ensure effective access to and reliable preservation of DoD scholarly publications and 

digitally formatted scientific data for research, development, and education. 

 Preserve and increase the use of research results to enhance scientific discovery. 
2

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

DoD fully supports free scientific exchanges and dissemination of research results to the 

maximum extent possible. This proposed plan provides a framework that could be used for 

information sharing and to promote research collaboration pertaining to publicly releasable 

results of science, technology and engineering efforts. Having DoD components work together 

within this proposed framework will yield synergies and innovations no single component can

achieve alone. This proposed plan is a draft at this point and has not been adopted as part of the 

DoD regulatory system or as a definitive course of action.

2. PROJECTED SCOPE 

The DoD Public Access plan is a draft approach that proposes to encompass any manuscript or 

digitally formatted scientific data set that:

 Is publicly releasable;

 For scholarly publications, is accepted for publication in a peer reviewed journal; and

 Arises from: 

• Any direct funding from a DoD grant or cooperative agreement; or

• Any direct funding from a DoD contract; or

• Any direct funding from any DoD Intramural Program; or

• Any clinical investigations from operations and maintenance appropriations.

Implementation will be prospective and will not apply to any digitally formatted scientific data

sets created or manuscripts published before a DoD policy has taken effect.

3. PROJECTED REQUIREMENTS

3.1 Peer Reviewed Scholarly Publications

According to this proposed plan, formal regulations and issuances will be promulgated requiring

authors to submit to the DoD public access archive system final peer reviewed manuscripts that 

meet the Prospective Scope criteria described in Section 2, once the manuscript is accepted for 

publication. In lieu of the final peer reviewed manuscript, DoD will accept the final published 

article, provided the author has the right to submit the published version.

The OSTP memorandum directs that these final peer reviewed manuscripts be freely available to 

the public no later than 12 months following publication. In the implementation stage of this 

proposed draft plan, a new requirement will be included in the appropriate provisions for

contracts, grants, cooperative agreements and any DoD intramural program.

3.2 Digitally Formatted Scientific Datasets

In accordance with OSTP Memorandum, digitally formatted scientific data resulting from 

unclassified, publicly releasable research supported wholly or in part by DoD funding should be 

stored and publicly accessible to search, retrieve, and analyze to the extent feasible and 
3

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

consistent with applicable law and policy; agency mission; resource constraints; and U.S. 

national, homeland, and economic security. For the purposes of this draft proposed plan, data 

will not be publicly releasable if release would compromise the ability to file for intellectual 

property protection on any invention arising from the data.

Implementation of this OSTP direction will require that formal regulations and issuances be 

developed. These regulations and issuances will require DoD components to ensure public 

access to unclassified publicly releasable digitally formatted scientific data, created or gathered 

in the course of work that meet the Projected Scope criteria above at no more than incremental 

cost and within a reasonable time. When it is feasible, DoD will provide unclassified publicly 

releasable data to which it has title without cost. Resources necessary to implement the plan will

be drawn from the existing DoD budget since no additional funds will be provided to 

accommodate the associated costs. DoD will work to provide access through the web on DoD, 

federal government, and public/private areas. Where it is not feasible to provide data through the 

web, DoD may be able to recover nominal production, media, and shipping costs.

For each DoD research effort, funded in accordance with 10 United States Code (U.S.C.) §2358,

a new requirement will be developed for inclusion in funding instruments directing the 

submission of a Data Management Plan that either conforms to a format specified by the funded 

institution or such other format that meets the requirements of the prospective policy. If, for 

legitimate reasons, the data cannot be preserved and made available for public access, the plan 

will include a justification citing such reasons.

The Data Management Plan will describe the digitally formatted scientific data created or 

gathered in the course of DoD intramural and extramural research. The plan will describe how 

and where the data will be made available to the public and explicitly describe how the data that 

underlies scientific publications will be available for discovery, retrieval, and analysis.

A supplementary “Data Management Plan” document will become an integral part of all 

contract or grant proposal packages. This supplement will describe how the proposal will

conform to forthcoming DoD policy on the dissemination and sharing of research results and 

may include:

 The types of data, software, curriculum materials, and other materials to be produced in 

the course of the project that are publicly releasable;

 The standards to be used for data and metadata format and content;

 Conditions for access and sharing including provisions for appropriate protection of 

privacy, confidentiality, security, intellectual property, or other rights or requirements;

 Conditions and provisions for re-use, re-distribution, and the creation of derivative 

works; and

 Plans for archiving datasets, or data samples, and other digitally formatted scientific data, 

and for preservation of access thereto.
4

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

 If, for legitimate reasons, the data cannot be preserved and made available for public 

access, the plan will include a justification citing such reasons.

DoD will: 

 Allow for inclusion of costs for data management and access in proposals;

 Determine the extent of direct data management and access costs appropriately associated 

with programs;

 Work with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and other agencies on the 

allowability of indirect costs for data management and access within the applicable cost 

principles;

 Explore, together with other departments and agencies, the development of a research 

data commons, a federated system of research databases for storage, discoverability, and 

reuse of data with a particular focus on making the data underlying the conclusions of 

peer reviewed scientific publications resulting from federally funded scientific research 

available for free at the time of publication; and

 Ensure that data management plans include clear plans for sharing research data and that 

data underlying the conclusions of scientific publications resulting from DOD awards are

freely available to the public before making subsequent awards.

4. DEFINITIONS [proposed]:

Approval for public release. Information reviewed by the Office of Security Review or other 

cognizant entity results in one of the following determinations: Cleared for Public Release; 

Cleared “with Recommendations” for Public Release; Cleared “as Amended” for Public Release. 

(DoD Instruction 5230.29, “Security and Policy Review of DoD Information for Public 

Release,” January 8, 2009)

Data. The digital recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as 

necessary to validate research findings including data sets used to support scholarly publications, 

but does not include laboratory notebooks, preliminary analyses, drafts of scientific papers, plans 

for future research, peer review reports, communications with colleagues, or physical objects, 

such as laboratory specimens. (OMB circular A-110)

Data management plan. A document that describes what data is generated through the course of 

the proposed research will be shared and preserved, and how it will be done, or explains why 

data sharing and/or preservation are not possible or scientifically appropriate, or why the costs of 

sharing and/or preservation are incommensurate with the value of doing so.

Final peer reviewed manuscript. An author's final manuscript of a peer reviewed paper accepted 

for journal publication, including all modifications from the peer review process. 
5

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

Final published article. A publisher’s authoritative copy of the paper, including all modifications 

from the publishing peer review process, copyediting, stylistic edits, and formatting changes. 

Also referred to as Version of Record (VOR).

Metadata. To facilitate common understanding, a number of characteristics, or attributes, of data 

are defined. These characteristics of data are known as “metadata,” that is, “data that describes 

data” (ISO 11179-3 Information about data). For any particular datum, the metadata may 

describe how the datum is represented, ranges of acceptable values, its relationship to other data, 

and how it should be labeled. Metadata also may provide other relevant information, such as the 

responsible steward, associated laws and regulations, and access management policy. Each of 

the types of data described above has a corresponding set of metadata. Two of the many 

metadata standards are the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) and Department of Defense 

Discovery Metadata Standard (DDMS). The metadata for structured data objects describes the 

structure, data elements, interrelationships, and other characteristics of information, including its 

creation, disposition, access and handling controls, formats, content, and context, as well as 

related audit trails. Metadata includes data element names (such as Organization Name, 

Address, etc.), their definition, and their format (numeric, date, text, etc.). In contrast, data is the 

actual data values such as the “U.S. Patent and Trade Office” or the “Social Security 

Administration” for the metadata called “Organization Name.” Metadata may include metrics 

about an organization’s data including its data quality (accuracy, completeness, etc.). Source: 

Federal Enterprise Architecture Program, “The Data Reference Model Version 2.0,” November 

17, 2005.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Information about an individual that identifies, links, 

relates, or is unique to, or describes him or her, e.g., a social security number; age; military rank; 

civilian grade; marital status; race; salary; home/office phone numbers; other demographic, 

biometric, personnel, medical, and financial information, etc. Such information is also known as 

personally identifiable information (i.e., information which can be used to distinguish or trace an 

individual’s identity, such as their name, social security number, date and place of birth, 

mother’s maiden name, biometric records, including any other personal information that is linked 

or linkable to a specified individual). (DoD 5400.11-R “Department of Defense Privacy 

Program,” May 14, 2007)

Proprietary information. Information relating to or associated with a company’s products, 

business, or activities, including, but not limited to, financial information; data or statements; 

trade secrets; product research and development; existing and future product designs and 

performance specifications; marketing plans or techniques; schematics; client lists; computer 

programs; processes; and knowledge that have been clearly identified and properly marked by 

the company as “proprietary information,” trade secrets, or company confidential information. 

The information must have been developed by the company and not be available to the 

government or to the public without restriction from another source. Proprietary markings are 

assigned pursuant to Public Law 104–294; 28 U.S.C. § 1498(a); title 17, U.S.C.; 18 U.S.C. § 
6

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

1905; and 15 U.S.C. § 638. (DoD Instruction 5230.24 “Distribution Statements on Technical 

Documents,” August 23, 2012)

Review for public release. The process by which information that is proposed for public release

is examined for compliance with established national and DoD policies and to determine that it 

contains no classified or export-controlled information. (DoD Directive 5230.09, “Clearance of 

DoD Information for Public Release,” current through August 22, 2015) A review for public 

release is also applicable to information governed by the provisions of: DoD Instruction 3216.02 

“Protection of Human Subjects and Adherence to Ethical Standards in DoD-Supported 

Research;” Title 32 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 219 Protection Of Human 

Subjects; DoD 5400.11-R “Department of Defense Privacy Program;” DoD 6025.18-R, “DoD 

Health Information Privacy Regulation;” Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008; 

45 CFR parts 160, 162, and 164; and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 

1996 (HIPAA) Administrative Simplification Regulations.

5. PROJECTED APPLICABILITY

The proposed DoD Public Access plan will apply to:

 All DoD components;

 DoD-funded research efforts under one of the following vehicles, provided its 

requirements were incorporated into the funding instrument:

• DoD grant or cooperative agreement; or

• DoD contract; or

• DoD intramural program

• Any clinical investigations from operations and maintenance appropriations.

6. POTENTIALLY RELEVANT STATUTES, REGULATIONS, and ISSUANCES

The U.S. legal and policy landscape promotes access to scholarly publications and digitally 

formatted scientific data produced in the federal and federally funded realms. The elements of 

this landscape potentially most relevant to public access to scholarly publications and digitally 

formatted scientific data sets are summarized below:

 Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD(AT&L)) 

Memorandum: “Public Access to the Results of Department of Defense-Funded 

Research,” July 9, 2014 http://dtic.mil/dtic/pdf/PublicAccessMemo2014.pdf

 DoD Instruction 3200.20 “Scientific and Engineering Integrity,” July 26, 2012, affirms

the Department’s policy to maximize the free flow of scientific and engineering 

information developed or used by DoD to the public, consistent with applicable law and 

regulation. 
7

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

 Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Memorandum, 

“Fundamental Research,” May 24, 2010.

 National Security Decision Directive 189, “National Policy on the Transfer of Scientific, 

Technical, and Engineering Information,” September 21, 1985.

 America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (Pub. L. No. 111-358), Section 103,

outlines the OSTP Director’s “responsibility to coordinate Federal science agency 

research and policies related to the dissemination and long-term stewardship of the results 

of unclassified research, including ... peer reviewed scholarly publications, supported 

wholly, or in part, by funding from the Federal science agencies.”

 Copyright Law (17 U.S.C. §105) provides that “copyright protection under this title is not 

available for any work of the United States Government.”

 The Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. §552) provides for public access to the 

records of the federal government.

 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130 specifies that “[t]he open and 

efficient exchange of scientific and technical government information ... fosters 

excellence in scientific research and effective use of federal research and development 

funds.”

 The Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. §35) has as one of its key purposes to “ensure 

the greatest possible public benefit from and maximize the utility of information created, 

collected, maintained, used, shared and disseminated by or for the federal government.”

The Department fully recognizes proprietary interests, business confidential information, and 

intellectual property. The DoD will structure the implementation of its public access plan 

accordingly.

7. PROSPECTIVE ROLES 

Under the projected DoD policy for public access, the following roles will be established by 

appropriate policy documents, regulations and issuances:

7.1 Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics 

(USD(AT&L)):

 Will assign overall executive responsibility for establishing, managing, and implementing

public access to peer reviewed scholarly publications and digitally formatted scientific 

data to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)).

7.2 The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)):

 Will assume Department-wide authority, control, and management of the public access 

initiative.
8

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

 Will develop DoD policy for public access to scholarly publications and digitally 

formatted scientific data.

 Will coordinate a sustainable funding strategy to implement the projected policy.

 Will coordinate the implementation of the projected policy.

 Will coordinate the collaboration and cooperation of public access with other federal 

agencies.

7.3 Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC)

 Will create and maintain an input system for peer reviewed scholarly publications.

 Will create and maintain a DoD data set catalog/locator that points to the location of DoD 

publicly available data sets.

 Will maintain a database for research in progress for the USD(AT&L), including 

metadata for publications and a record of submissions to DTIC.

 Will maintain an online search for metadata and full text of peer reviewed scholarly 

publications, both the author’s final peer reviewed manuscript, and the publisher’s final 

copy (as provided by the publishers or authors) after the 12 month embargo period. This 

system will provide metadata and abstracts for such publications in a way that is open, 

readable, and available for bulk download. Metadata will be linked to the manuscript or 

published article to ensure that attribution to authors, journals, and original publishers is

maintained.

 Will track metrics on compliance and public usage.

7.4 Heads of DoD Components:

 Will include the requirements of the public access initiative as terms and conditions of 

funding instruments for grants, contracts, and agreements.

 Will develop practical funding mechanisms to ensure the successful implementation of 

the public access initiative. 

 Will ensure scholarly publications authored by DoD employees were not copyrighted in 

the United States, and secure a government use license for those publications (17 U.S.C.

§105). 

 Will ensure the author’s final peer reviewed manuscript and any subsequent errata from 

research performed by DoD employees, or through a contract, grant, or cooperative 

agreement will be submitted to DTIC when it is accepted for publication, when the final 

title and date of publication are known.

 Will report each journal article and confirm its submission to DTIC in the component’s 

research in progress record for that project.
9

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

 Will ensure compliance with the projected public access policy.

7.5 Authors:

 Will be advised to work with the publisher before any publication rights are transferred to 

ensure that all conditions of the projected DoD public access policy can be met. 

 Will be advised not to sign any agreements with publishers that do not allow the author to 

comply with the projected DoD public access initiative.

 Will be required to deposit the final peer reviewed manuscript and any subsequent errata

at DTIC when it is accepted for publication, when the final title and date of publication 

are known.

 Will prepare plans for management and sharing of digitally formatted scientific data to 

ensure that all conditions of the projected DoD public access policy are met. 

 Will include provisions in their plans for the preservation and public access to digitally 

formatted scientific data.

 Will implement the plans by providing the data sets to appropriate repositories.

 Will provide metadata for each data set, including subject, characteristics, and location to 

DTIC’s DoD data set catalog. 

8. IMPLEMENTATION 

This draft proposed plan describes major implementation requirements addressing the planning, 

submission, management, access, and preservation of scholarly publications. 

DTIC will collect journal articles, data management plans, and will track metrics on compliance 

and public usage. The current DTIC infrastructure will be modified to accommodate new 

requirements. At the same time DoD will monitor processes adopted by other federal agencies 

and, if possible, adopt their best practices. For example, DoD will collect the author’s final 

manuscript, use a feed from the publisher’s website for the version of record during the embargo 

period and then make both versions available after the embargo.

8.1 Planning 

The DoD will adopt through appropriate documents, including through DoD regulations and 

issuances, a systematic approach to implement a public access policy.

General Principles:

 Establish an iterative process of policy design, planning, implementation, evaluation and 

impact assessment, and policy redesign.

 Work in full and open consultation with all stakeholders, including other federal agencies, to 

maintain and improve the public access policy.
10

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

 Explore opportunities and mechanisms to work and interact, as appropriate, with the private 

sector.

 Create a framework for identification, storage, and accessibility of digitally formatted 

scientific data. 

 Ensure the public can locate, and download unclassified, publicly releasable digitally 

formatted scientific data.

 Make sure the government maintains appropriate data rights to allow the public to read, 

download, and analyze in digital form at the beginning of the process. DoD will use standard 

government-wide data rights language.

 Maintain attribution to authors, journals, and original publishers through the linkage to 

bibliographic metadata. 

 Ensure the public can search, read, and download the final peer reviewed manuscripts or 

published articles, without charge, no later than 12 months following publication.

8.2 Timeline

The DoD expects to initiate a rulemaking process that will put the proposed plan, subject to 

revisions determined appropriate, into effect in accordance with DoDI 5025.01. Current 

projections estimate the start date to be in fiscal year (FY) 15. The process will include new 

issuances and modifications to issuances identified in this section, including:

 Public Access to Publications and Data from Department of Defense Funded Research 

and Defense Health Program (to be issued).

 DoDI 3200.12 "DoD Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Program (STIP)."

 DoDM 3200.14 “Principles and Operational Parameters of the DoD Scientific and 

Technical Information Program.”

 Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) (48 CFR §§ 200-299).

 Department of Defense Grant and Agreement Regulations (DoDGARS) ((32 CFR, 

Chapter I, Subchapter C and 2 CFR, Chapter XI).

The DoD will aggressively pursue a course of action to ensure that the infrastructure for 

managing public access assets will be in place and ready for voluntary submissions by the end of 

calendar year 2015. At the same time, the Department will initiate processes for DoD intramural 

programs. The rulemaking process including the public comment period takes approximately 24

months. The Department anticipates that implementation of the proposed public access policy in 

contract, and grant and agreement regulations will be completed in the fourth quarter of FY16. 

The regulations will stipulate that public access requirements are not retroactive and do not apply 
11

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

to research programs awarded before the policy effective date. Before the policies are in place,

at the end of FY15 and beginning in FY16, DoD will begin pilot projects for voluntary 

submission of intramural, contract and grant journal articles and data sets.

8.2.1 Actions proposed in FY15 and FY16:

 Develop a plan to modify existing procedures and infrastructure to conform to public access 

policy.

 Develop guidance on risk analysis procedures to prevent public release of classified and 

sensitive unclassified information, and to avoid consequences resulting from aggregation or 

compilation of information or data that are harmful to national security.

 Develop guidance, for investigators, to ensure the integrity of patentable information and 

data is maintained.

 Develop guidelines for compliance with requirements of section 515 of Public Law 106–554, 

the Information Quality Act, for digitally formatted scientific data sets hosted on DoD 

systems.

 Require data management plans to include estimated uncertainties or measurement errors 

associated with data.

 Define analytical processes to determine the balance between relative value of long-term 

preservation and access and associated cost and administrative burden.

 A new regulation for Research and Defense Health Programs funded by the DoD will include 

requirements for:

• Submission of peer reviewed scholarly journal articles in accordance with defined 

procedures; and

• Design and execution of data management plans.

 Appropriate changes will be implemented on the following DoD policies and issuances per 

the provisions outlined in the new issuance for Research and Defense Health Programs

funded by the DoD

• DoDI 3200.12 and DoDM 3200.14.

• DFARS 252.235-7011 (48 CFR §§ 200-299)

• DoDGARS (32 CFR, Chapter I, Subchapter C, and 2 CFR Chapter XI).

 In coordination with other federal agencies, DoD will provide guidance on scientific data 

management, analysis, storage, preservation, and stewardship, including but not limited to:

 Guides to writing data management plans,

 Examples of data management plans,

 Guides to journal article copyright licenses,
12

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

 Guides to reporting article submission to journal publishers, and

 Training, education and workforce development.

8.3 Submission

8.3.1 Peer Reviewed Scholarly Journal Articles

The DoD plans to establish a system to enable the submission of final, peer reviewed 

manuscripts or final published articles that includes the following functionalities:

 Enable users to submit and manage manuscripts.

 Allow submission by the author, the publisher, or the manager of the funding agreement. 

 Accept manuscripts in a range of common electronic formats.

 Accept any additional files of figures, tables, or supplementary information included with 

the manuscript. 

 Provide flexible and multiple approaches to manuscript submission.

8.3.2 Digitally Formatted Scientific Data

The DoD plans to establish a system to enable identification, appropriate attribution, storage and 

accessibility of publicly releasable, digitally formatted scientific data through a federated system 

of storage assets. By ensuring public access, DoD will enable the potential for creative reuse of 

federally funded research and development (R&D), to enhance the value to all stakeholders and 

maximize the impact of the federal research investment. Estimated timeline for implementation 

is detailed in section 8.2.1.

 DoD will adopt federal-wide common standards for data and repositories.

 Data assets will be stored in publicly accessible databases, where appropriate and 

available. They may be stored at institutional repositories or a central environment, for 

example the cloud. A DoD data set catalog/locator will enable discovery of the data sets. 

 DoD will compare the costs, benefits, feasibility, risks, and issues related to long term 

access to third party repositories.

 DoD will develop requirements for the submission of metadata to DTIC. The metadata 

for scientific data will include, at a minimum, the common core metadata schema in use 

by the federal government, found at https://project-open-data.cio.gov/.

9. MANAGEMENT

9.1 Peer Reviewed Scholarly Journal Publications

The DoD plans to use the DTIC’s database system to serve as a repository of full-text scholarly 

publications. This system:
13

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

 Stores, organizes, and manages the publications collected or submitted under this 

policy. 

 Uses an open architecture and follows industry standards to facilitate open 

government, enable integration, and promote interoperability. 

 The public-facing portion of the DTIC database offers access to over 2M information 

assets documenting the results of DoD-funded research. Using the DTIC 

infrastructure to incorporate requirements of public access will avoid unnecessary 

duplication of existing mechanisms. These assets are also available through

science.gov, a portal that searches over 60 databases of research results from 15 

federal agencies. The incorporation of peer reviewed scholarly journal publications 

will enhance value to all stakeholders by allowing interested parties to reuse the full 

spectrum of federally-funded research within or across disciplines.

 Has the capacity to integrate scholarly publications with appropriate scientific 

databases.

 Enables components to monitor compliance with this public access policy. 

9.2 Digitally Formatted Scientific Data

The Department’s objective is to make digital data sets available to the public to the extent 

feasible with agency mission and resources available. The DoD goal is to implement a 

decentralized approach for storing data in public repositories, with a centralized data 

catalog/locator at DTIC to consolidate the metadata for compliance, measurement and discovery. 

This approach matches the way that DoD R&D funds are allocated to the military departments 

and other DoD components and will allow resident subject matter experts to oversee stewardship 

of the digital data within their respective disciplines.

Data underlying the conclusions of peer-reviewed journal publications will be made freely 

available at the time of initial publication. The data will be presented in machine readable 

format consistent with the Department’s implementation of OMB Memorandum M 13-13.

The DoD will design, implement, and maintain a sustainable network of data management 

capabilities to enable discovery, appropriate use, and long term management of publicly 

releasable digitally formatted scientific data. This includes but is not limited to: 

 Development of a centralized database of metadata at DTIC, which incorporates links to 

the digital data assets, and related documentation, reports, and journal articles.

 Development of procedures to ensure data integrity over time.

 The metadata for scientific data will include, at a minimum, the common core metadata 

schema in use by the federal government, found at https://project-open-data.cio.gov/.
14

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

9.3 Access and Discoverability

9.3.1 Peer Reviewed Scholarly Journal Publications

The DTIC public-facing websitewill ensure easy search, analysis and download of peer reviewed 

scholarly publications arising from research funded by DoD. DTIC’s responsibilities to ensure 

public access will include:

 Properly maintaining the system to ensure it is reliably available through the Internet.

 Embargo: Final peer reviewed journal articles will be available without charge following 

a 12-month embargo period starting on the date of publication. DoD will provide a 

mechanism for accepting petitions for changes to the 12-month embargo, including 

email, phone, and mailing address. Such petitions should present compelling, statistically 

based evidence that a change is necessary to promote the quality and sustainability of 

scholarly publications with due consideration of taxpayer rights. DoD will work with 

other federal science agencies to promote consistent implementation of embargoes for 

specific scientific fields.

 Search: DTIC’s public-facing website allows users to search, retrieve, and analyze

results of DoD-funded research.

 Access to metadata: The public will have access to journal article metadata without 

charge upon first publication through the public-facing DTIC website, the author and/or 

the publisher. The metadata will ensure attribution to authors, journals and original 

publishers, and provide a link to the full text at the publisher’s website, if available. 

After the embargo period the full text will be posted on the public-facing DTIC website

together with the associated supplemental materials. 

 Acceptable use policies: Use of the articles will be subject to copyright and related 

license terms.

 Bulk downloads for research, and managing the restriction on unauthorized bulk 

downloads. Bulk downloads will be permitted only as authorized and by special 

arrangement. DoD web usage monitoring protocols will alert system administrators of 

potentially improper practices. These will be investigated as they occur. DoD will

publish a warning regarding copyright and prohibitions under the terms of use statement. 

DoD will investigate mechanisms and technologies that monitor and prevent the 

unauthorized mass redistribution of scholarly publications in FY15. 

 Exposure to third party services. DoD will make the metadata for journal articles 

available through the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) to public crawlers, such as Google, 

Bing, etc. Links to the full text will be consistent with embargo constraints described 

above.
15

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

 508 compliance. DoD will ensure the system is accessible to persons with disabilities 

and compliant with section 508a of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 794d).

9.3.2 Digitally Formatted Scientific Data

 Search: A centralized database of metadata will enable retrieval by instrument number, 

performing organization, sponsoring organization, subject category, etc.

 Acceptable use policies: Data that is not approved for public release will not be 

included under this plan.

 Bulk downloads for research, and managing the restriction on unauthorized bulk 

downloads. Bulk downloads will be permitted only as authorized and by special 

arrangement. DoD web usage monitoring protocols will alert system administrators of 

potentially improper practices. These will be investigated as they occur. DoD will

publish a warning regarding copyright and prohibitions under the terms of use statement.

 Exposure to third party services. DoD will make the locator catalog for publicly 

releasable digitally formatted scientific data available through OAI to public crawlers, 

such as Google, Bing, etc. Public digitally formatted scientific data sets will be made 

available through de facto open standards.

 508 compliance: DoD will ensure the system is accessible to persons with disabilities 

and compliant with section 508a of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 794d).

9.4 Preservation 

The DoD will ensure the permanent preservation and long term accessibility of peer reviewed 

scholarly publications by adopting sound, non-proprietary preservation standards and archival 

formats; and developing practical backup, migration, and technology refreshing strategies. 

Digitally formatted scientific data sets will be preserved on government, DoD, and private sector 

hosts for as long as practicable. When preservation is no longer economically feasible, the data 

set owners will conduct an assessment on the inherent value of the data and provide a 

recommendation on whether to transfer the data elsewhere or to abandon the notion of 

preservation. Data deemed valuable will be preserved on government hosts such as the cloud.

10. METRICS, COMPLIANCE and EVALUATION: 

DoD proposes to design, develop, and execute a web-based compliance monitor that issues 

certification tokens to authors who submit digitally formatted scientific data and articles. DTIC

will establish compliance metrics in FY15.

DoD will explore the use of a database and federal data sources such as usaspending.gov and the 

Federal Data Procurement System as the basis for the compliance and tracking system for both 

journal articles and digitally formatted scientific data sets from research. ASD(R&E) will report 

on compliance to OSTP. Projected functionalities will include:
16

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

 Metadata on articles submitted to publishers: Authors and Co-Authors, Subject, Title, 

Date submitted, Status (in peer review, accepted by journal, date set for publication), 

Date published, Journal title, Copy of author’s accepted manuscript, Link to journal 

(or other established repository) for public and DoD access, Embargo period end date, 

Public Affairs (PA) and Operations Security (OPSEC) review confirmation.

 Metadata on Digital Data: Summary of Data Management Plan, List of digital 

datasets identified for access and preservation, Location of preservation archive, 

Distribution code for each dataset, Metadata for each dataset identified, Methodology

for public access, Compliance status, PA and OPSEC review confirmation.

 Analytics to track compliance: 

• Comparison to technical reports database,;

• Comparison of usaspending.com and fpds.gov records reported;

• Comparison to the research in progress database;

• Testing to determine that data sets are available;

• Comparison to publisher Fundref data;

• Public access statistics on published articles;

• Public access statistics on data sets;

• Analysis of data sets exempted for national security, economic, and 

privacy reasons;

• Comparison of data sets exempted to articles submitted;

• Testing that data sets do not contain personally identifiable information 

(PII) and are approved for public release; and

• Reminders to investigators/authors.

11. PUBLIC CONSULTATION EXPERIENCE

DoD participated at the Public Comment Meeting concerning Public Access to Federally 

Supported R&D Publications and Federally Supported R&D Data on 14-17 May 2013 at the 

National Academy of Sciences. DoD participated at a meeting with publisher representatives on 

15 May 2013.

12. INTERAGENCY COORDINATION

DoD works with CENDI, an interagency working group of senior federal government STI 

managers from 13 U.S. federal agencies. Member capabilities are shared and challenges are 

faced together so that the sum of accomplishments is greater than each individual agency can 

achieve on its own. 

13. PUBLIC NOTICE

DoD will work with other federal government agencies in publishing a generalized public access 

plan in the Federal Register, soliciting comment from federally funded researchers, universities, 

libraries, publishers, users of federally funded research results, civil society groups, and the 

general public.
17

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

14. UPDATE AND RE-EVALUATION OF THE PLAN

DoD will conduct an evaluation of accomplishments in August of 2015, and modify the plan 

where necessary.

15. TIMELINE FOR IMPLEMENTATION

This document is a plan and as such it does not impose any requirements or responsibilities on 

any DoD component. The timeline projections that follow imply the adoption of official policy 

through the DoD regulatory system as a necessary prior condition.

FY15. DoD will work on revising policy to support public access of work from contracts, grants, 

cooperative agreements, and in-house efforts, and work on standards to make the output conform 

to open standards, such as XML or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), with metadata standards 

from the Open Data Project. DoD will change its systems to accept the new formats and initiate 

a pilot project to process journal articles and a catalog/locator of data sets. DoD components will 

be required to create a capability to input compliance data into DoD research in progress 

database.

FY16. Before the formal policies are in place, at the end of FY15 and beginning in FY16, DoD 

will begin pilot projects for voluntary submission of intramural, contract and grant published 

articles and data sets. DoD will implement Phase II Pilot project to process >10,000 journal 

articles and look into hosting the smaller data sets. DoD will implement compliance tracking 

and enforcement for journal articles. Locator catalog will receive automatic updates. DoD will 

establish standard data set infrastructure. DoD will achieve operational capability to comply 

with the requirements of OSTP/OMB requirements as the policy is complete for intramural 

research, for contracts, and for grants. 

FY17. Upon completion of the CFR rulemaking process, DoD components will implement 

compliance tracking and enforcement for data management plans for intramural research, and 

through contracts and grants.

FY18. Central data set repository will link to DoD and grantee/contractor data sets automatically, 

and deliver data to users.

FY19. DoD will create a capability for users to select and access a sub-set of data from 

repositories. DoD will create larger general repositories and federated search.

16. RESOURCES

Policy implementation will require upfront investments from DTIC. Implementation will require 

establishment and updates to policy. DoD will frame its implementation plan through policy 

guidance, and budget programming will have a foundation for DoD Program Objective 

Memorandum (POM) process and future budget submissions. Incremental funding for data 

management and publications will be supported through existing research budgets.
18

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited

17. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Additional public access policies and guidance include: 

 Association of American Universities. Scholarly Publishing Roundtable. “Report and 

Recommendations from the Scholarly Publishing Roundtable,” January 2010 

http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=10044

 Executive Office of the President. National Science and Technology Council. 

Interagency Public Access Coordination. “A Report to Congress on the Coordination of 

Policies Related to the Dissemination and Long-Term Stewardship of the Results of 

Federally Funded Scientific Research,” March, 2012 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/public_access-final.pdf 

 Executive Order 13642. “Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for 

Government Information,” May 09, 2013 http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-05-

14/pdf/2013-11533.pdf

 Library of Congress. National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation 

Program. http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/

 National Institutes of Health. “NIH Public Access Policy Details,”

http://publicaccess.nih.gov/policy.htm

 Office of Management and Budget. Memorandum for the Heads of Executive 

Departments and Agencies. “Open Government Directive,” December 8, 2009: 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-06.pdf

 Office of Management and Budget. Memorandum for the Heads of Executive 

Departments and Agencies. “Open Data Policy-Managing Information as an Asset,” 

May 9, 2013 http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2013/m-13-

13.pdf