Numerous federal statutes, executive orders, and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circulars provide agencies with guidance concerning the creation, collection, maintenance, dissemination, and preservation of government information. Ensuring effective and long-term access to this information is a priority for the research library community.
ARL advocates for policies that advance open science and open data in order to provide effective access to and archiving strategies for these resources, and ensure accountability of the federal investment in research. Other strategies include updating laws such as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and passing the Open Government Data Act and the Geospatial Data Act of 2018 that reflect the rapid change in how government information is created, managed, accessed, and preserved due to the adoption of information technologies.
Agency Policies
Campus Resources
- US National Institutes of Health (NIH) 2008 and 2023 Draft NIH Public-Access Plan Comparison (March 2023)
- OSTP 2013 & 2022 Public Access Memo Comparison (October 2022)
- What Are the Copyright Implications of the New OSTP Public-Access Guidance? (December 2022)
Letters and Comments
- ARL Celebrates Biden-Harris Administration’s Historic Policy to Make Federally Funded Research Immediately Available (August 2022)
- ARL Responds to US Office of Science and Technology Policy Request for Information on Public Access to Federally Funded Research (May 2020)
- ARL, AAU, APLU Present Statements on Public Access to Data, Publications (May 2013)
- Comments of the Association of Research Libraries Concerning “Public Access Policies for Science and Technology Funding Agencies across the Federal Government” (January 2010)
