PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the Subcommittee on Research and Technology.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Sep 20, 2013
Public Access to Public Science Act - Directs each of the covered agencies (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA], National Science Foundation [NSF], National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST], and National Weather Service [NWS]) to formulate and implement a public access policy to make covered works publicly available, without charge, on the day after the end of an embargo period.
Defines: (1) "covered work" as any peer-reviewed research results published in scholarly publications, with certain exceptions, that are based on research funded in whole or in part by a covered agency; and (2) "embargo period" as the period of time no more than 12 months after the initial date of publication of a covered work, unless modified.
Specifies that the public access policy shall: (1) allow the public to read, download, and analyze by machine covered works in digital form; (2) facilitate easy public search of, analysis of, and access to covered works; (3) encourage public-private collaboration; (4) ensure that attribution to authors, journals, and original publishers is maintained; and (5) ensure that publications and metadata are stored in an archive.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Requires a covered agency's public access policy to ensure full public access to covered works' metadata, without charge, upon first publication.
Requires each covered agency, in coordination with specified stakeholders, to provide a mechanism for a stakeholder to petition to change the embargo period for specific covered works by presenting evidence that the public will be substantially and uniquely harmed under the agency's public access policy related to that work.
People & committees
Rep. Sensenbrenner, F. James, Jr. [R-WI-5] · R–WI
Legislative record
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Referred to the Subcommittee on Research and Technology.
Referred to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Aug 12, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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