The Institute of Education Sciences is committed to advancing education research through the sharing of publications and scientific data that emanate from funded research. This page provides an overview of expectations for providing public access to publications and data along with links to more detailed information regarding these requirements.

The IES Policies are aligned with the U.S. Department of Education's Plan and Policy Development Guidance for Public Access, which was approved October 21, 2016.
View, download, and print the full plan as a PDF file (626 KB)

Publications: Beginning in FY 2012, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) required its grantees to submit their peer-reviewed scholarly publications to the ERIC. Contractors that do not have their results published by IES must also submit any peer-reviewed scholarly publications to ERIC. Investigators are to submit the electronic version of their final manuscripts upon acceptance for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The author's final manuscript is defined as the final version accepted for journal publication, and includes all modifications from the peer review process. Posting for public accessibility through ERIC is strongly encouraged as soon as possible but must be within 12 months of the publisher's official date of final publication. Researchers receiving grants or contracts prior to FY 2012 are encouraged, but not required, to submit publications from IES funded grants and contracts to ERIC.

Data Access: IES established a requirement for data sharing in FY2013 for Goal 4 Effectiveness grants, and this requirement was extended to include Goal 3 Efficacy and Replication grants in FY2015. In FY2016, IES included a requirement for data sharing for the Research Networks on Critical Problems of Policy and Practice competition. Grantees are required to provide access to the final research data from grants in a timely fashion, and no later than the time of publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly publication. Applications must include a data management plan that describes the method of data sharing, types of data to be shared, and documentation that will be created to promote responsible use of data. In providing public access to data, researchers must protect the rights and privacy of human subjects at all times. Beginning in FY2016, contractors that do not provide their final data set to IES as part of their contract are required to provide access to their final research data as described for grants above. Specifically, contractors must propose a data management plan at the start of each study. For data collected by the contractor, plans must include which data will be collected, how the data will be stored, the method of sharing, documentation that will be created for the file, and how the researchers will protect the rights and privacy of human subjects at all times.

Links to pages on the IES website with further information and policies and resources are provided below.

Links:

Policy Statement on Public Access to Publications Resulting from IES Funded Grants

Policy Statement on Public Access to Data Resulting From IES Funded Grants