Does DOE or LANL require new work be published via Open Access (the paid alternative), standard publication (the free of charge route), or is there no requirement either way? Any clarification here would be greatly appreciated.
Answer
DOE has mandated a public access policy for research published by DOE institutions, including LANL. DOE does not mandate the Open Access paid route to public accessibility.
The DOE mandate is referred to as “public access”, and you can read more about it at the library’s website on the topic. Public access is a bit different from Open Access. DOE’s version of public access relies on the accepted manuscript (AM) version of an article, available publicly after a 12-month embargo. The AM is the author’s final peer reviewed and accepted version of their article. It is not the copyedited version of record usually found at the publisher website.
The RASSTI process requires you to submit your AM into the RASSTI system once it is available. The library workflow then ensures your AM is made available through various publicly accessible venues including DOE PAGES and Los Alamos Research Online (LARO), the library’s public-facing institutional repository.
For future publications you may also want to keep in mind that the library funds Open Access publication for eligible LANL authors for many publishers, and has enabled OA APC discounts for others. You can find a list of these publishers at the Library OA Publishing Support web page. The list of APC-funded publishers is continually expanding.
FYI, the White House OSTP Memorandum released 25 August 2022, entitled Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research, will remove the 12-month embargo period and continue to require that Accepted Manuscripts are made publicly available. This policy guidance is required to be implemented no later than 31 December 2025.