USGS hosted a webinar on updated federal requirements for open access to publications and data resulting from WRRA-funded research. This session is relevant to Institute Directors, grants administrators, and principal investigators.
This webinar will cover what Institutes need to know about federal directives now in effect for WRRA FY2026 awards, including the required Project Abstract Summary for FY26 104b (only necessary for Year 1 of the new 5-year cycle).
These directives/guidance documents include:
- The 2022 OSTP Public Access Memo, effective December 31, 2025, which eliminates the 12-month embargo and requires publications and supporting data to be freely available at the time of publication.
- The USGS Public Access Plan (ver. 2.0), effective December 31, 2025, which establishes specific requirements for availability of final manuscripts and data funded in whole or in part by federal monies, as well as Data Management Plan content and metadata standards.
- Executive Order 14303, Restoring Gold Standard Science (signed May 23, 2025), and DOI Secretarial Order 3441, Implementing Requirements of EO 14303 (signed August 29, 2025), which defines nine tenets of scientific integrity – including reproducibility, transparency, and conflict-of-interest management – that federal agencies are extending to grantees.
The webinar will discuss how the above directives/guidance documents are to be implemented with WRRIs. Topics will include what counts as timely data release, which repositories satisfy USGS requirements, what must be in a compliant Data Management Plan, how these requirements flow to sub-awarded PIs, and what the consequences of noncompliance are.
View the recording here.
