Many research funders require or mandate that the published results of their funding be made openly available. This is an open access mandate. Many mandates also extend to publication data.
Open access mandates exist for some foundations as well as US government agencies. However, details of HOW to comply with open access mandates vary greatly.
For example, the NIH requires uploading accepted manuscripts in PubMed Central. The Gates Foundation requires uploading of accepted manuscripts to a repository, and funds cannot be used to pay an article processing charge (APC).
A 2022 White House OSTP memo has mandated immediate open access for publications resulting from all US government-funded research by 2026.
Complying with federal mandates: most of these mandates require uploading the accepted manuscript to a repository of choice (see below for an example from NIH). It does NOT require the published version to be open access, so charges do not need to be included in a grant proposal, though that is an option if you are planning to publish in an open access journal.
New from NIH: On July 1, 2025, NIH implemented a new open access mandate requiring an accepted manuscript to be uploaded to PubMed Central at the time of publication in advance of the 2026 OSTP memo deadline. In October 2025, NIH will also set a maximum fee for article processing charges (amount TBD).
Federal offices with mandates for new and existing grants: DOE, EPA, FDA, IMLS, NASA (SMD only), NEH, NIH, Smithsonian
New from HHMI: HHMI implemented an open access mandate, optional until January 2026, requiring uploading of both early preprints (before peer review) AND accepted manuscripts (after peer review, but not the final publication).
Gates Foundation: open access mandate requires uploading of accepted manuscripts to a repository, and funds cannot be used to pay an article processing charge (APC).
For current information about other mandates, please refer to MIT's guide on Research Funder Requirements or SPARC's OSTP guide.
For any questions or assistance with complying with open access mandates, please contact Rachel Borchardt, borchard@american.edu, or schedule an appointment.