UPDATE: National Science Foundation Policy Update (NSF PAPPG 24-1 Supplement 2) – Effective January 22, 2026
The U.S. National Science Foundation has posted a policy notice, NSF PAPPG 24-1 Supplement 2, that applies to all financial assistance awards issued on or after January 22, 2026. These changes are geared to support greater transparency, access, and reuse of NSF-funded research.
Major policy changes include:
- Public Access to Research Products – these changes align NSF’s public access system with broader federal and scholarly communication expectations.
- No 12-month embargo on publications – deposits are required at the time of publication.
- Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAMs) and Version of Record (VORs) are accepted in NSF’s Public Access Repository (PAR).
- Publications must be available with machine-readable XML metadata.
- PAR Identifiers now function like persistent IDs (similar to DOIs).
- Research.gov Project Reporting – this improves linkage between reported outcomes and public access repositories
- Project reports will automatically populate PAR persistent identifiers and metadata for publications and other projects.
- Direct dataset entry in project reports is prohibited – datasets should instead be archived with persistent IDs.
- Data Management and Sharing Plan – these revisions reinforce timely data sharing in accordance with federal public access policies.
- DMSPs must eventually be created using the new Researh.gov data sharing tool (expected release is April 27, 2026).
- All data supporting NSF-funded publications must be shared at time of publication, unless justified in the DMSP.
If you have questions about how this update may affect your NSF award(s) please contact the Office of Research Administration (ORA) by email at ora@maine.edu.