EPA Order 1000.17B: Policy for Increasing Access to Results of EPA-Funded Extramural Scientific Research
It is agency policy to ensure that the results of EPA-funded extramural scientific research are accessible to the public to the greatest extent feasible consistent with applicable law; policies and orders; the agency’s mission; resource constraints; and U.S. national, homeland, and economic security. The objective of this policy is to maximize, at no charge, access by the public to peer-reviewed scientific research journal publications or associated author manuscripts, and their underlying digital research data created in whole or in part with agency funds, while protecting personal privacy; recognizing proprietary interests, confidential business information, and intellectual property rights; and avoiding significant negative impact on intellectual property rights, innovation, and U.S. competitiveness. To do so, this policy describes requirements for agency offices that manage research through extramural agreements (i.e., grant and cooperative agreements, interagency agreements, and contracts). These include ensuring that recipients/contractors make EPA-funded extramural scientific research journal publications or associated author manuscripts accessible to the public at no charge via the National Institutes of Health's PubMed Central repository and post the digital research data underlying the publications to a publicly accessible platform. Publication-related metadata will be accessible through PubMed Central. Metadata pertaining to the dataset underlying the publication will be accessible from the agency's dataset metadata repository.
EPA Order 1000.17B was updated on January 2, 2025, to reflect new public access provisions outlined in EPA’s Public Access Plan Update. The requirements in the updated Order will be effective once EPA finalizes terms and conditions reflecting the new Order.