REPORT TO THE U.S. CONGRESS ON FINANCING MECHANISMS FOR OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING OF FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) prepared this report to the Appropriations Committees of the Senate and the House in fulfillment of the requirement in the Committee Report accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (P.L. 117-328) on financing mechanisms for open access publishing of federally funded research. To help the federal government monitor and maximize the benefits of investments in scientific research, OSTP has prepared this report on the requested aspects of open access publishing by drawing on open datasets, analytic literature, and extensive consultation with a range of stakeholders. Sections include: 1. An overview of federal public access policies 2. Trends in academic publishing, describing a variety of business models to enable public access to federally funded research, including models that rely on APCs and those that do not 3. Approaches to public and access policies from around the world, underscoring the truly global nature of the move towards free and immediate access to scholarly literature 4. Estimated APC fees paid to publish federally funded research between 2016 to 2021 5. Limitations associated with calculating fees associated with TAs 6. Potential impacts on publishing behaviors for researchers at different institution types, career stages, and domains of research 7. Data needs for continued investigation into this important topic Also included is an appendix on economic concepts of relevance to the financing of open access publishing, which may provide additional context to consider in considering this report.