Comply with Public Access Policies

In response to the 2022 OSTP public access memo, the Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has released an updated public access policy.

IES has highlighted three important changes to their new public access policy guidance:

1. All publications stemming from federally funded work must be made freely available to the public immediately following publication. There will no longer be a 12-month embargo for articles that are not published open access. To facilitate this transition, IES encourages all awardees to publish their work in open access journals where feasible, and to budget for Article Processing Charges (APCs) accordingly. Additional guidance will be provided to support researchers in complying with this new requirement.
2. Data sharing will be required at time of publication or, if unpublished, five years after the IES award ends, whichever comes first. IES applications have shifted from requesting a data management plan (DMP) to a data sharing and management plan (DSMP) to foreground the shift in emphasis to routine data sharing.
3. Unique digital persistent identifiers (PIDs) must be established for all key personnel, publications, awards, and datasets. Starting in FY2024, all key personnel on new IES-funded projects are required to establish an individual digital PID (such as ORCID) prior to award. IES encourages but does not yet require key personnel to register with ORCID prior to submitting their applications/proposals.

When does the new policy go into effect?

Requests for Applications (RFAs) and for Proposals (RFPs) released in the 2024 calendar year will reflect new requirements for awards to be made in Fiscal Year 2025 (which began on October 1, 2024). IES awardees receiving funds after October 1, 2024, will need to ensure (either through your publisher or your own efforts) that a full-text version of the published article is uploaded to ERIC immediately upon publication. 

How do I comply with the requirement for a persistent digital identifier (PID)?

To receive a researcher-specific persistent digital identifier (PID), you can register with ORCID. For more information on ORCID registration and other types of PIDs, see the two guides linked below:

Where can I find more information?

Where should I submit articles?

Grantees are required to submit peer-reviewed publications to ERIC.

Which version of the article should I submit?

Specifically, grantees should submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript (defined as an author's final manuscript of a peer-reviewed scholarly paper accepted for publication, including all modifications resulting from the peer review process) rather than the final published article (defined as a publisher’s authoritative copy of the paper including all modifications from the publishing peer-review process, copyediting, stylistic edits, and formatting changes.) However, the content included in both the final peer-reviewed manuscript and the final published article, including all findings, tables, and figures should be identical.