Open Access Publishing

Mandates

In the research community, a "mandate" refers to guidelines or requirements set by a governing body, funding agency, or other organization stipulating how research should be conducted, disseminated, or made accessible. These mandates are designed to ensure that research practices align with goals such as ethical standards, transparency, and public accessibility.

Types of Mandates
There are different types of mandates, each with its specific focus and requirements:

• Funder Mandates: These are issued by funders of the research, dictating requirements that researchers must follow as a condition of receiving funding.
• Data Sharing Mandates: These focus on the sharing of research data.
• Public Access and Open Access Mandates: These dictate how and where research outputs should be made accessible to the public.
• Ethical Mandates: These relate to the ethical conduct of research, like participant consent and data privacy.

NOTE: Much of the mandated open access grant information that was previously available on Grants.gov has been taken down. Please look to the specific funding agency for guidance (NIH and NSF are linked below).

Public Access and Open Access are closely related, but they have different accessibility and reuse rights. Typically:

• Public Access - The public can read or download works without a subscription or payment. However, the rights to reuse or distribute the content are typically limited. 
• Open Access - The public can read or download works without a subscription or payment but also typically permitted to reuse, redistribute, and adapt the work.

While both mandates make research free to access, open access mandates allow more freedom in how that research can be used.

Examples of Public Access Mandates

• NIH Public Access Policy: Mandates that all research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) must be submitted to the PubMed Central database and made publicly accessible no later than 12 months after publication. The reuse and redistribution rights vary from publication to publication. 
• National Science Foundation Policy
• Tri-Agency Policy on Publications: This policy mandates that all peer-reviewed journal publications arising from NSERC, SSHRC, or CIHR-funded research be made publicly accessible within 12 months of publication. Similar to the NIH policy, this mandate focuses on public access to the research rather than reuse rights.

Examples of Open Access Mandates

• Wellcome Trust's Open Access Policy: Mandates that all research outputs funded by them must be made available open access. The Trust requires that the outputs be deposited in PubMed Central or Europe PubMed Central, with a Creative Commons license allowing for reuse and redistribution.
• Plan S: Created by cOAlition S, a group of national research agencies and funders from several European countries, mandates that from 2021, publications resulting from research funded by public grants must be published in open access journals or platforms and the articles must be made immediately available with a license that permits unrestricted reuse, such as a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY).