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1 National Institute of Standards and Technology

2 Plan for Providing Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research

3 

4 Draft for Public Comment

5 June 30, 2023

6 

7 1. PURPOSE

8 NIST’s mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement 

9 science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of 

10 life. This can be accomplished in part through publishing research results. 

This document updates NIST’s 20141 11 plan to enable public access to the results of research funded 

12 wholly or in part by NIST; updates to NIST’s Public Access Policy will be informed by this Public Access 

13 Plan. 

14 NIST’s Public Access Plan promotes the following objectives: 

15 • Reaffirm NIST‘s commitment to providing free public access to scientific research results in 

16 formats that allow for machine-readability and enable broad accessibility through assistive 

17 devices. 

18 • Support governance of and best practices for managing peer-reviewed scholarly publications 

19 and digital scientific data across NIST. 

20 • Ensure effective access to and reliable preservation of NIST peer-reviewed scholarly publications

21 and digital scientific data for use in research, development, education, and scientific discovery

22 by depositing them in appropriate repositories, including data repositories that align with the 

23 Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP’s) guidance on “Desirable Characteristics of 

Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research.”2 24

25 • Enhance innovation and competitiveness by maximizing the potential to create new business 

26 opportunities. 

27

28 2. SCOPE 

29 The NIST Public Access Plan applies to the results of research funded wholly or in part by NIST, 

30 presented in peer-reviewed scholarly publications including book chapters and peer-reviewed

1 https://www.nist.gov/open/policies-directives-and-nists-public-access-plan 2 https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/05-2022-Desirable-Characteristics-of-DataRepositories.pdf 
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31 conference proceedings as appropriate, and “scientific data” as defined in the OSTP memo as “the 

32 recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as of sufficient quality to 

33 validate and replicate research findings. Such scientific data do not include laboratory notebooks, 

34 preliminary analyses, case report forms, drafts of scientific papers, plans for future research, peer35 reviews, communications with colleagues, or physical objects and materials, such as laboratory 

36 specimens, artifacts, or field notes.” 

37 The NIST Public Access Plan does not apply to public release of trade secrets, commercial information, or 

38 other materials necessary to be held confidential by a researcher until they are published, or similar 

39 information that is protected under law; and personnel and medical information and similar information 

40 the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

41 NIST will protect confidentiality and personal privacy and will recognize proprietary interests, business 

42 confidential information, and intellectual property rights, avoiding significant negative impact on 

43 intellectual property rights, innovation, and U.S. competitiveness. 

44 Implementation of NIST's Public Access Plan is prospective and does not apply to NIST peer-reviewed 

45 scholarly publications written and datasets generated prior to 2015, when NIST’s original Public Access 

46 Policy took effect. Scholarly publications and research data published between 2015 and the effective 

47 date of this revised policy resulting from the OSTP memo of 2022 will be available within constraints of 

48 NIST’s 2015 policy. The new Public Access Policy will be available by December 31, 2024 and effective no 

49 later than December 31, 2025. However, NIST will continue to endeavor to make legacy publications and 

50 associated metadata publicly available and ensure their preservation. 

51

52 3. APPLICABILITY

53 The NIST Public Access Plan applies to the following groups:

54 • All NIST employees who publish peer-reviewed scholarly material and generate/collect data as 

55 part of their employment, including full- and part-time employees, temporary government 

56 employees, and special government employees;

57 • Awardees from non-NIST organizations that publish peer-reviewed scholarly material and 

58 generate/collect data through activities funded wholly or in part by NIST through a grant, 

59 cooperative agreement, contract, or other agreement. This includes but is not limited to states, 

60 localities, regulated parties, non-profit and volunteer organizations, contractors, cooperative 

61 agreement holders, grantees, cooperating Federal agencies, intergovernmental organizations, 

62 universities, and other educational institutions. For activities funded by multiple sources with 

63 differing public access requirements, the provisions of this plan will apply unless otherwise 

64 specified by NIST in its funding documents. 

65
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66 4. REQUIREMENTS

67 To the extent feasible and consistent with any legal, privacy, ethical, technical, intellectual property, or 

security limitations, including national security,3 68 NIST intends to make freely available to the public, in 

69 publicly accessible repositories, all peer-reviewed scholarly publications and associated data arising from 

70 unclassified research and programs funded wholly or in part by NIST. 

71 Subject to the same conditions and constraints listed above and/or any other potential restrictions or 

72 limitations on data access, use, and disclosure, including those defined in terms and conditions of 

73 funding agreement or award, or that convey from a data use agreement or stipulations of an 

74 Institutional Review Board, NIST will also promote the deposit of scientific data arising from unclassified 

75 research and programs, funded wholly or in part by NIST, to make it available free of charge unless 

76 otherwise exempt, in publicly accessible repositories, simultaneously with or prior to publication of 

77 associated manuscripts. Other federally funded scientific data that is not associated with peer-reviewed 

78 scholarly publications but is expected to be useful to interested parties is similarly shared. Metadata 

79 associated with data is publicly accessible and reusable. 

80 Federal researchers must follow federal laws and OMB policies that govern federal agencies’ 

information management practices and protect certain types of data,3 81 to the extent that the scientific 

82 data created by, collected by, under the control or direction of, or maintained by the federal researchers 

83 is subject to those laws and policies. Some data may be shareable with a subset of the general public. To 

84 maximize appropriate sharing of data, systems will permit restricted public access to some data.

85 Publicly accessible versions of narrative and data publications will be machine-readable and accessible 

86 through assistive devices to the extent possible. Publicly available metadata associated with both 

87 narrative and data publications, intramural and extramural, will include all author and co-author names, 

88 affiliations, sources of funding, date of publication, and unique persistent identifiers (PIDs) for all 

89 authors, institutions/organizations, funders, and research outputs as available. Metadata associated 

90 with publications will be publicly accessible and reusable. 

91 Capabilities of NIST systems to store PIDs will evolve over time; currently NIST staff are required to 

92 obtain and use an ORCID, and our IT systems collect these as well as digital object identifiers (DOIs) for 

93 published data, code, and papers. NIST mints DOIs for data and code stored in NIST repositories. 

94 Data/works created by NIST employees that are not covered by the Standard Reference Data Act are 

95 subject to 17 U.S.C. §105 and generally are not subject to copyright protection within the United States. 

3 For instance, the Paperwork Reduction Act, E-Government Act, Freedom of Information Act, Federal Information 

Security Management Act, Privacy Act, Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, 

Information Quality Act, Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, Confidential Information Protection 

and Statistical Efficiency Act, Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects, Federal Records Act, and OMB 

guidance under OMB M-13-13 and subsequent open data policies (e.g., those to be promulgated under the OPEN 

Government Data Act and Pub. L. No. 115-435), OMB Circular A-130, and other laws and policies that require 

federal agencies to protect trade secrets, confidential commercial information, personally identifiable information, 

and other information which is protected under law or policy. 
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96 NIST data or other works may be subject to copyright protection in foreign countries. NIST may also 

97 obtain and hold copyright in data/works created by non-NIST employees (e.g., NIST contractors) when 

98 copyright is assigned to NIST. Additional information about fair use and re-use of data and software is 

99 provided on the NIST website.

100 All proposals or plans for activities that will generate scientific data using NIST funding are required to 

101 (1) adhere to a Data Management Plan (DMP) that describes how scientific data generated through the 

102 course of the proposed work will be shared and preserved or (2) explain why data sharing and/or 

103 preservation are not within the scope of this plan.

104 NIST supervisors are required to ensure staff compliance with the requirements of DMPs, including 

105 those for preservation and discoverability. NIST supervisors ensure that DMPs are considered in the 

106 context of employees’ performance plans and evaluations. Non-compliance with requirements by staff 

107 may have performance-review consequences. 

108 Authors of peer-reviewed scholarly publications are required to submit to the NIST public access 

109 repository, PubMed Central (PMC), the author’s accepted version of a final peer-reviewed manuscript 

110 within the scope of this plan as soon as the manuscript is accepted for publication along with any 

111 associated metadata. In lieu of the author’s accepted version of the final peer-reviewed manuscript, 

112 NIST will also accept the final published article, as formatted by the journal, provided the author is 

113 permitted to share the formatted version per publisher policies. 

114 NIST’s plan further requires that the final manuscript, which has been peer-reviewed and accepted for 

115 publication (i.e., the author’s accepted version), be freely available to the public through PMC

116 immediately upon publication if law allows and no later than 12 months following publication if 

117 publisher policies permit. Immediate availability is dependent upon (1) whether a manuscript is 

118 published in an open access journal or through paid open access, (2) whether the content of the 

119 manuscript is not subject to copyright, (3) and whether any co-author(s) can claim copyright and has 

120 transferred that copyright to a manuscript’s publisher. NIST will study 2 CFR §200.315 Intangible 

121 Property and FAR 52.227 Rights in Data to determine conditions under which awardees can deposit 

122 author manuscripts in institutional repositories. Terms and conditions will be modified as appropriate, 

123 and guidance on rights retention for NIST-funded authors will be developed. 

124 Reasonable costs associated with publication, including submission, curation, management of data, and 

125 special handling instructions may be included in grant proposals or project plan budgets for contracts. 

126 Awardee DMPs are reviewed as part of the technical evaluation process. Awardees must specify the 

127 data repository or repositories they expect to use. Such repositories must be aligned with OSTP 

guidance.

2 128 Non-compliance with requirements by funding recipients may result in suspension or 

129 termination of the award. 

130 Upon request NIST will report to OSTP the status of implementation of this public access plan and 

131 associated policies as well as the numbers of scholarly publications and data resulting from federal 

132 funding being made available to the public. 

133
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134 5. AUTHORITY 

135 NIST’s authority to require broad public access to the results of federally funded research stems from 

136 multiple sources, including, but not necessarily limited to, those below.

137 Public Law 115-435 Title II, Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary Government Data Act

138 Public Law 107-347, E-Government Act of 2002, § 207

139 Public Law 111-358, America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, § 103

140 Executive Office of the President, Executive Order 13642, Making Open and Machine Readable 

141 the New Default for Government Information, 9 May 2013

142 Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Memorandum for 

143 the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies (MHEDA), Open Data Policy – Managing 

144 Information as an Asset, M-13-13, 9 May 2013

145 Executive Office of the President, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), MHEDA, 

146 Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research, August 25, 2022

147 Executive Office of the President, OSTP, MHEDA, Increasing Access to the Results of Federally 

148 Funded Scientific Research, 22 February 2013

149 Executive Office of the President, OMB, MHEDA, Open Government Directive, M-10-06, 8 

150 December 2009

151 Executive Office of the President, MHEDA, Transparency and Open Government, M-09-12, 21 

152 January 2009

153 OMB, Circular A-130, Management of Federal Information Resources, 28 July 2016

154 The National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 272, Chapter 7) states the 

155 responsibility of NIST to “compile, evaluate, publish, and otherwise disseminate general, specific, and 

156 technical data resulting from the performance of the functions specified in this section or from other 

157 sources when such data are important to science, engineering, or industry, or to the general public, and 

158 are not available elsewhere.” 

159 NIST’s Public Access Plan and resulting policies do not rescind any other Department of Commerce or 

160 NIST policies or guidance and do not alter or supersede existing law or regulations, including NIST’s fee 

161 recovery authority for the provision of calibrations and Standard Reference Materials (15 USC 275c) and 

162 Standard Reference Data (15 USC 271-278e), which is further articulated in Public Law 90-396, the 

163 Standard Reference Data Act.

164

165 6. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

166 NIST Director 
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167 • Controls and manages NIST’s Policy and Order on Managing Public Access to Results of Federally 

168 Funded Research.

169 • Ensures coordination of the management of public access to results of federally funded research 

170 with non-NIST organizations, as applicable.

171

172 Associate Director for Laboratory Programs (ADLP)

173 • Implements and provides oversight for maintenance of, and compliance with, NIST’s Policy and 

174 Order on Managing Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research.

175 • Ensures the availability of appropriate resources for managing public access to results of 

176 federally funded research.

177 • Ensures compliance with NIST’s Policy and Order on Managing Public Access to Results of 

178 Federally Funded Research.

179 • Coordinates collaboration and cooperation on implementation of the NIST’s Policy and Order on 

180 Managing Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research across NIST and with the 

181 Department of Commerce and other federal agencies.

182 • With the Associate Director for Management Resources (ADMR) and the Associate Director for 

183 Innovation and Industry Services (ADIIS), coordinates with relevant OUs and Offices in their 

184 infrastructure planning and implementation to promote interoperability across NIST.

185 • With the ADMR, Chief Information Officer (CIO), and Chief Data Officer (CDO), coordinates with 

186 relevant OUs and Offices in their infrastructure planning and implementation to promote 

187 interoperability across NIST.

188 • With the ADMR, CIO, and CDO, coordinates collaboration and cooperation on implementation of 

189 this plan across NIST, and with the Department of Commerce and other Federal agencies.

190

191 Associate Director for Management Resources (ADMR)

192 • Facilitates the provision of NIST-level infrastructure to manage public access to results of 

193 federally funded research. 

194 • Ensures the development and deployment of training, awareness, and outreach activities 

195 pertaining to the management of public access to results of federally funded research.

196 • Ensures compliance with NIST’s Policy and Order on Managing Public Access to Results of 

197 Federally Funded Research.

198 • With the ADLP and ADIIS, coordinates with relevant OUs and Offices in their infrastructure 

199 planning and implementation to promote interoperability across NIST.

200 • Oversees the activities of the Chief Information Officer and the Directors of the NIST Research 

201 Library and Museum and Office of Acquisition and Agreements Management in supporting 
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202 NIST’s Policy and Order on Managing Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research, as 

203 applicable.

204 • With the ADLP, CDO, and CIO, coordinates collaboration and cooperation on implementation of 

205 this plan across NIST, and with the Department of Commerce and other Federal agencies.

206

207 Associate Director for Innovation and Industry Services (ADIIS)

208 • Oversees the activities of the Directors of the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office, 

209 the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, the Economic Analysis Office, the Hollings 

210 Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and the Technology Partnership Office in supporting 

211 NIST’s Policy and Order on Managing Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research, as 

212 applicable.

213 • Ensures compliance with NIST’s Policy and Order on Managing Public Access to Results of 

214 Federally Funded Research.

215

216 NIST Chief Data Officer (CDO)

217 • Oversees implementation of NIST’s Public Access Plan.

218 • Oversees development of directives in support of NIST’s Public Access Plan.

219 • Supports NIST Director and ADLP responsibilities, as applicable.

220 • Coordinates with relevant OUs and Offices in infrastructure planning and implementation to 

221 promote access to research outputs across NIST.

222 • Coordinates with other Commerce-bureau CDOs to promote access to research outputs across 

223 the Department.

224 • With the ADLP, ADMR, and CIO, collaborates and cooperates on implementation of this plan 

225 across NIST, and with the Department of Commerce and other Federal agencies.

226

227 NIST Chief Information Officer (CIO)

228 • Manages NIST-level information technology infrastructure to support NIST’s provision of public 

229 access to results of federally funded research.

230 • Ensures that the NIST Enterprise Data Inventory (EDI) is available to NIST employees and that 

231 NIST inventory records are provided to the Department of Commerce and government-wide 

232 inventories in the necessary format, per Office of Management and Budget requirements.

233 • Ensures that the NIST Publications System (NPS) is available to NIST employees.

234 • Supports NIST OU and Office Directors’ responsibilities, as applicable.
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235 • With the ADLP and ADMR, coordinates with relevant OUs and Offices in their infrastructure 

236 planning and implementation to promote interoperability across NIST.

237 • With the ADLP and ADMR, coordinates with other agency CIOs and with the Federal CIO Council 

238 to promote interoperability across agencies.

239

240 Director, NIST Research Library and Museum

241 • Works with the Office of Information Systems Management (OISM) to ensure implementation 

242 and operation of the NIST EDI.

243 • Curates and maintains metadata associated with PIDs assigned by NIST to scholarly publications 

244 and scientific research data.

245 • Provides consultation, training, and educational materials for NIST employees on managing data 

246 and providing public access, including use of the NIST EDI and the NIST review process, as 

247 applicable, for results of federally funded research that are intended for public dissemination.

248 • Facilitates search and access for the public to metadata for narrative and data publications.

249 • Supports NIST OU and Office Directors’ responsibilities, as applicable.

250

251 Director, Office of Acquisition and Agreements Management (OAAM)

252 • Works with the Directors of NIST OUs and Offices to ensure that activities funded wholly or in 

253 part by NIST to a non-NIST organization through a grant, cooperative agreement, contract, or 

254 other agreement include requirements for managing data and publications consistently with the 

255 NIST directives for Managing Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research as specified 

256 by NIST in the terms and conditions of the grant, cooperative agreement, contract, or other 

257 agreement with the non-NIST organization.

258

259 Directors of the OUs and Offices that produce scientific data

260 • Implement policies to manage public access to results of federally funded research within their

261 OU or Office.

262 • Work with other offices, e.g., OISM and the NIST Research Library and Museum, to manage 

263 public access to results of federally funded research.

264 • Review data prior to making it publicly available; authority to carry out this responsibility may be 

265 delegated to the Division Chief or equivalent.

266 • Ensure that their OU or Offices deposit manuscripts and associated data in NIST-authorized 

267 repositories.
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268 • Ensure that their OU or Office prioritizes the discoverability and publication of OU or Office 

269 datasets that are not associated with publications, based on stakeholder needs and risk 

270 management, as appropriate.

271 • Provide oversight for implementation of the OU-/Office-level plan by units (such as divisions, 

272 programs, or projects) within the OU/Office.

273 • Evaluate the effectiveness of units with the OU/Office in meeting the objectives of this plan.

274 • Coordinate with ADLP, ADMR, and CIO in infrastructure planning and implementation to 

275 promote interoperability across NIST.

276

277 Supervisory Employees within an OU or Office

278 • Ensure activities under their direction are in compliance with policies for managing public 

279 access to results of federally funded research. 

280 • Ensure employees under their supervision meet employee-level requirements of their OU or 

281 Office plans to manage public access to results of federally funded research.

282 • Work with OAAM to ensure that activities funded wholly or in part by NIST to a non-NIST 

283 organization through a grant, cooperative agreement, contract, or other agreement include

284 requirements for managing data and publications consistently with the NIST directives for 

285 Managing Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research, as specified by NIST in the 

286 terms and conditions of the grant, cooperative agreement, contract, or other agreement with 

287 the non-NIST organization.

288

289 Non-Supervisory Employees

290 • Comply with the employee-level requirements of NIST directives for Managing Public Access to 

291 Results of Federally Funded Research: 

292  Prepare and execute DMPs.

293  Provide metadata for NIST publishable or published data to the NIST EDI.

294  Provide published data in open formats via publicly available, NIST-authorized repositories 

295 free of charge unless otherwise exempt (i.e., some Standard Reference Data).

296  Provide metadata for narrative publications to the NIST Publications System (NPS).

297  Include funding information in publications.

298  Provide author versions of peer-reviewed publications to NPS so they can be made 

299 machine-readable, accessible to assistive technologies, and publicly available via NIST’s 

300 institutional repository.

301  Enable broad accessibility by ensuring that accessibility aspects of a paper that are under 

302 their control have been addressed.
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303 • Work with OAAM to ensure that activities funded wholly or in part by NIST to a non-NIST 

304 organization through a grant, cooperative agreement, contract, or other agreement address 

305 requirements for managing data and publications consistently with the NIST directives for 

306 Managing Public Access to Results of Federally Funded Research, as specified by NIST in the 

307 terms and conditions of the grant, cooperative agreement, contract, or other agreement with 

308 the non-NIST organization.

309 • When serving as a Federal Program Officer or Technical Point of Contact:

310  Review and work with awardees to ensure DMP compliance with term and conditions of 

311 agreements, as necessary, and notify GMD or OAAM of awardees’ compliance with the 

312 requirement.

313  Enter metadata for awardees’ narrative publications into the NIST Publications System as 

314 appropriate.

315  Enter metadata for awardees’ scientific data products into the NIST EDI.

316

317 Awardee Institutions and Funding Recipients:

318 • Ensure that authors and investigators comply with all terms and conditions of awards, including

319 acknowledgment of funding sources in research outputs, inclusion of all available PIDs as 

320 appropriate, and making results of federally funded research publicly available. 

321 • Provide metadata for published research products to their Federal Program Officer or Technical 

322 Point of Contact.

323

324 7. IMPLEMENTATION 

325 NIST’s initial public access plan provided a framework for identifying, managing, and preserving the 

326 results of federally funded research so as to make them publicly accessible as peer-reviewed 

327 publications and digital data. These remain our principles today as we address the 2022 update to 

328 OSTP’s memo. NIST’s guiding principles for implementation include the following:

329 • Create flexible approaches and infrastructure to accommodate a wide range of results of 

330 scientific research as well as a diversity of user communities, including funded researchers, 

331 universities, libraries, publishers, industry, civil society, and any other users of NIST research 

332 results. Policies, processes, and infrastructure that provide meaningful access to the results of 

333 NIST-funded research for this full range of communities will continue to be developed.

334 • Optimize search, archival, and dissemination features to encourage innovation in accessibility 

335 and interoperability while ensuring long-term stewardship of the results of federally funded 

336 research.
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337 • Plan for change as the types and volume of scientific information produced with NIST funding 

338 expands. Extensible and evolvable solutions that can accommodate ever-changing needs are 

339 required. NIST will track and respond to continuing changes in digital technologies when 

340 planning to make research results publicly accessible.

341 • Provide appropriate leadership to promote and enhance NIST’s reputation for high-quality 

342 output, willingness to work in partnership, and responsiveness to stakeholders. 

343 Policy

344 In 2014, NIST adopted a systematic approach to implement a Public Access Policy that included the 

345 following: 

346 • Public discovery and download of peer-reviewed publications and associated data free of charge 

347 no later than 12 months following publication

348 • Attribution of publications to authors, journals, and original publishers

349 • Effective data management planning for all NIST-funded activities that produce scientific data

350 • Public discovery and access to NIST scientific data and

351 • Clear guidance and access to appropriate education and training materials for NIST staff and 

352 NIST-funded extramural researchers to help them comply with NIST policies. 

353 As a result of the 2022 memo, NIST will:

354 • Provide public discovery and download of peer-reviewed publications free of charge 

355 immediately (if law allows) but no later than 12 months following publication. Data associated 

356 with the manuscript will be made available free of charge immediately upon publication of the 

357 paper.

358 • Provide metadata for peer-reviewed publications that is machine-readable, machine-actionable, 

359 and available for re-use via an application programming interface (API).

360 • Provide attribution of publications to authors, journals, and original publishers in our 

361 institutional repository (PMC).

362 • Include persistent identifiers in metadata and in research outputs themselves as available.

363 • Provide effective data management planning and data sharing for all NIST-funded activities that 

364 produce scientific data.

365 • Provide a portal for public discovery and access to NIST scientific data associated with 

366 manuscript and stand-alone datasets (including code) as well as other research outputs. 

367 • Issue clear guidance for NIST staff and NIST-funded extramural researchers to help them comply 

368 with NIST policies and conditions of their funding agreements. 

369

370 Intramural Narrative Publications and Data
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371 In 2014, NIST partnered with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to utilize PubMed Central (PMC) as 

372 our institutional repository; NIST’s peer-reviewed publications may be found through a NIST 

373 “storefront” page on the PMC website. By partnering with NIH, NIST ensures the permanent 

374 preservation (in compliance with federal records retention requirements), machine-readability, and 

375 long-term availability of metadata and peer-reviewed scholarly publications free of charge. PMC 

376 provides accessible manuscripts to the extent possible, as described on the PMC website; accessibility is 

377 limited in part by the completeness of information submitted, and NIST aims to improve the accessibility 

378 of our submissions (e.g., through the inclusion of alt-text for figures). 

379 NIST’s 2014 plan for providing public access to data consisted of three components: data management

380 plans (DMPs), an enterprise data inventory (EDI) that assigns DOIs to data, and a Public Data Repository

381 where the public can find and access our scientific data. These three pieces are operational but in FY23

382 are being upgraded to provide a better user experience, to collect more metadata, and to provide a 

383 single portal through which NIST research outputs can be accessed. Domain metadata will be collected 

384 along with information about associated publications, including persistent identifiers for associated 

385 publications and other research products, individuals, funders, awards, etc., as they become available.

386 NIST’s Public Data Repository is currently undergoing assessment for certification as a CoreTrustSeal 

387 Data Repository; CoreTrustSeal complies with the NSTC Subcommittee on Open Science’s Desirable 

Characteristics for Data Repositories.

2 388

389 Extramural Narrative Publications and Data 

390 Funding agreements include requirements for data management planning consistent with the goals of 

391 the NIST plan. Applicable Notices of Funding Opportunities point to a DMP template and rubric, and 

392 require technical review of the DMP; deficiencies must be addressed before research begins and costs 

393 are incurred. Awardees are required to resubmit DMPs if deficiencies were noted and revisions were 

394 necessary or if the DMP was modified during the course of the work. Currently, all final peer-reviewed 

395 manuscripts arising from NIST-funded research must be (1) freely available within 12 months of 

396 publication in a journal associated with CHORUS or (2) submitted to the NIST publications repository or 

397 equivalent within 12 months of publication. Recipients must continue to report the status of any 

398 publications and associated PIDs in their Research Performance and Progress Reports (RPPRs). 

399 Department of Commerce’s (DOC’s) Award Conditions currently state that:

400 • Publication of results or findings in appropriate professional journals and production of 

401 video or other media is encouraged as an important method of recording, reporting, and 

402 otherwise disseminating information and expanding public access to federally funded 

403 projects (e.g., scientific research). Non-Federal entities must comply with the data 

404 management and access to data requirements established by the DOC funding agency as set 

405 forth in the applicable Notice of Funding Opportunity and/or in Specific Award Conditions. 

406 • Non-Federal entities may be required to submit a copy of any publication materials, 

407 including but not limited to print, recorded, or Internet materials, to the funding agency. 
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408 • When releasing information related to a funded project, non-Federal entities must include a 

409 statement that the project or effort undertaken was or is sponsored by DOC and must also 

410 include the applicable financial assistance award number. 

411 • Non-Federal entities are responsible for assuring that every publication of material based 

412 on, developed under, or otherwise produced pursuant to a DOC financial assistance award 

413 contains the following disclaimer or other disclaimer approved by the Grants Officer: This 

414 [report/video/etc.] was prepared by [recipient name] using Federal funds under award 

415 [number] from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of 

416 Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the 

417 author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Institute of Standards and 

418 Technology or the U.S. Department of Commerce.

419 These are supplemented by additional NIST terms and conditions:

420 • Recipients are encouraged to publish the research results of a NIST research grant/cooperative 

421 in open scientific literature in such a way as to be generally available to American Scientific 

422 Libraries.

423 • The Recipient should contact the Federal Program Officer for assistance in coordinating 

424 appropriate publication/dissemination of information resulting from a NIST research 

425 grant/cooperative agreement. For this purpose, the NIST Technical Grant/Contractor Series

426 (GCR) may be used as a publication venue, but the Recipient may choose other 

427 publication/dissemination methods.

428 • In any such publications, acknowledgment of NIST sponsorship must be made with a footnote or 

429 other appropriate notation reading, “This work was performed under the following financial 

430 assistance award [insert NIST grant or cooperative agreement number] from the U.S. 

431 Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology,” or words to that 

432 effect.

433 • The Recipient must submit one (1) copy of any published work to their assigned Federal 

434 Program Officer.

435 Terms and conditions for awards will be modified to state that:

436 • Funders, award numbers, and associated PIDs where available must be included in research 

437 outputs.

438 • Data associated with a manuscript must be made publicly available at the same time the 

439 manuscript is published.

440 • Other data acquired as a result of the award must be made publicly available within three years 

441 of the end of the award if data publication is not prohibited (e.g., for legal, privacy, ethical, 

442 technical, intellectual property, or security limitations, and/or any other potential restrictions or 

443 limitations on data access, use, and disclosure, including those defined in terms and conditions 
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444 of funding agreement or award or that convey from a data use agreement or stipulations of an 

445 Institutional Review Board).

• Public data must be deposited in a repository that is aligned with OSTP guidelines.

2 446

447 Guidance will be provided on making narrative publications available.

448

449 Outreach and Education

450 In coordination with other agencies and the private sector, awareness and support training, education, 

451 and workforce development related to NIST’s plans to provide public access to the results of federally 

452 funded scientific research, including scientific data management, analysis, storage, preservation, and 

453 stewardship, is provided to NIST staff. Guidance is provided to those outside NIST who are working on 

454 NIST-funded scientific research; this guidance will be updated as necessary to meet new requirements, 

455 as appropriate.

456

457 8. METRICS, COMPLIANCE, AND EVALUATION

458 NIST will continue to develop mechanisms to evaluate compliance with NIST’s Public Access Policy

459 including collection of metrics such as:

460 • Number of intramural and extramural papers (i.e., articles submitted from NIST grants and 

461 contracts) made available to the public per year.

462 • Percentage of intramural and extramural papers for which datasets were made available 

463 immediately upon publication.

464 • Number of datasets added to the NIST Enterprise Data Inventory per year.

465 • Number of datasets made public per year.

466 • Percentage of NIST staff and awardees in compliance with requirements.

467 NIST will utilize data from PubMed Central, CHORUS, and other reference sources to determine 

468 compliance; compliance will be enforced through annual performance reviews at both staff and 

469 management levels and through evaluation of past performance in grants, contracts, and other awards

470 and agreements. Note that the Department of Commerce is currently migrating to NIH’s eRA Commons

471 for grants management; that system should provide additional compliance data in FY25. Metrics will be 

472 reported to OSTP as requested.

473

474 9. PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

475 NIST uses PubMed Central (PMC) as our institutional repository for peer-reviewed publications. PMC’s

476 use of a non-proprietary archival language maximizes interoperability between public and private 

477 platforms, making creative re-use of metadata and contents of publications possible. The same potential 
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478 for re-use exists for NIST’s data and associated metadata, which are available through NIST’s Public Data 

479 Repository. And a partnership with CHORUS provides a window into publication metrics through 

480 metadata provided by publishers. Value to all stakeholders is enhanced, and unnecessary duplication of 

481 existing mechanisms is avoided. 

482

483 10. INTERAGENCY COORDINATION 484

485 NIST coordinates with other agency partners through the following mechanisms: 

486 • National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee on Open Science (SOS) and 

487 multiple associated working groups convened by OSTP to enable interagency coordination in 

488 responding to the requirements of the February 2013 and August 2022 public access memos 

489 • NSTC Subcommittee on Research Security convened by OSTP to enable interagency 

490 coordination in responding to the requirements of NSPM-33 

491 • Commerce Data Governance Board and its multiple working groups to share best practices in 

492 research data management and assure that data assets are properly catalogued in the 

493 Department of Commerce’s data inventory and data.gov

494

495 11. PUBLIC NOTICE

496 NIST will work with other agencies in publishing an announcement of our revised public access plan in 

497 the Federal Register soliciting comment from federally funded researchers, universities, libraries, 

498 publishers, users of federally funded research results, civil society groups and the general public. NIST 

499 will post our revised Public Access Plan at https://www.nist.gov/open. 

500

501 12. UPDATE AND RE-EVALUATION OF THE PLAN 

502 The plan will be evaluated annually and updated as necessary until a revision to NIST’s Public Access 

503 Policy is implemented. 

504

505 13. TIMELINE FOR IMPLEMENTATION

506 Key milestones are outlined in each implementation category below.

507
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508 13.1 Policies

509

DUE DATE DESCRIPTION

February 2023 Submit draft plan to OSTP, addressing requirements in section 3 of the 2022 

OSTP memo

December 2024 Update and publish directives (addressing section 3)

December 2024 Submit draft plan to OSTP, addressing requirements in section 4 of the 2022 

OSTP memo

December 2025 Effective date for new directives (addressing section 3)

December 2026 Update and publish directives (addressing section 4)

December 2027 Effective date for new directives (addressing section 4)

510 13.2 Infrastructure

511

DUE DATE DESCRIPTION

September 2023 Make NIST Publications System (NPS) metadata publicly available via API

September 2023 Configure NPS and EDI to collect PIDs for awards, funders, research outputs, and 

individuals recognizing that some PIDs do not currently exist

October 2024 [Expected date of NIST migration to eRA Commons for grants management]*

September 2026 If an API is available, configure NPS and EDI to ingest metadata from eRA 

Commons (e.g., DOIs for awardees’ papers and published data)

March 2027 Develop reports to monitor awardees’ compliance with terms and conditions 

related to providing public access to research results
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September 2027 Configure NPS and EDI to accept or manage persistent identifiers (PIDs) for 

funders, awards, contracts, research outputs, etc.

September 2027 Provide information about authors, affiliations, and funding sources on research 

outputs’ landing pages on the NIST website

512 *Milestones that follow this are dependent upon timing of NIST’s migration to eRA Commons for grants 

513 management.

514 13.3 Processes

515

DUE DATE DESCRIPTION

September 2023

Require funding statements in intramural and extramural narrative publications. 

Require use of Research Organization Registry (ROR) and other persistent 

identifiers as available.

September 2024

Modify NIST’s Award Conditions of grants to require data publication in an 

appropriate repository at the time of manuscript publication, acknowledgment of 

funding sources with PIDs where available, and release of standalone data within 

three years.

September 2024 Require NIST authors to make their outputs Section 508 compliant to the extent 

possible

516

517 14. RESOURCES

518 Implementation of this plan requires an annual investment of $6.52M in addition to the approximately 

519 $5M we currently spend annually across the Office of Data and Informatics, the Office of Information 

520 Systems Management, the NIST Research Library, and the Special Programs Office. See the Appendix for 

521 a breakdown of funding requirements. Note that this plan is not a budget document and does not imply 

522 support or approval of any specific action or investment.

523

524 15. DOCUMENT HISTORY

525 Submitted to OSTP, February 14, 2023

526 Draft approved by OSTP and OMB with comments, April 26, 2023
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527 Revised per OSTP comments, May 17, 2023

528 Initial release for public comment, June 30, 2023

529

530 Contact: public-access@nist.gov

531
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532 APPENDIX

533 Funding requirements for implementation of this plan. This plan is not a budget document and does not 

534 imply support or approval of any specific action or investment.

535

FTEs

Loaded 

Salaries

($M)*

Other 

Objects 

($M)

Maintenance, operations, and updates to enterprise data inventory, 

public data repository, and portal (Office of Data and Informatics 

(ODI) – 2, Office of Information Systems Management (OISM) – 1) 3 0.98 

Maintenance, operations, and updates to publications inventory,

repository, and portal (OISM) 2 0.65 

Modifications to NPS and MIDAS to collect newly required metadata

(OISM) 1 0.33 

Mechanism to identify awardee outputs and configure systems to 

monitor compliance with specific award conditions (OISM) 0.5 0.15 

APIs to data (as opposed to metadata) 1 0.30

Adobe Acrobat Pro for 2,000 staff members – $5.13/month/user is 

current rate 0.12

Accessibility training – 'live' training with HR contractor 0.15

Conversion of publication documents to XML, formatting, and 

deposit into PubMed Central; maintenance of metadata associated 

with NIST-minted DOIs (NIST Research Library) 6 1.80 0.10

Mechanism to determine when a paper has been published so PMC 

knows when to release 0.5 0.15 

Data stewards in each of the six Labs to manage documentation and 

maintenance of data for intramural or extramural reuse, including 

understanding community needs and potential risks associated with 

data disclosure 6 1.80 

SUBTOTAL 20.0 $ 6.15 $ 0.37 

TOTAL $ 6.52 

536

537 *Staffing costs were estimated using $300k for a loaded ZP-III salary, $350k for a loaded ZP-IV, and $325 

538 as a midpoint.