Addressing Legal Uncertainties in Article Versions and Institutional Copyright Policies to Support Immediate Public Access to Federal Grant-Funded Publications

New federal public access policies—mandated by the 2022 OSTP Memo and already adopted by several key federal grant-making agencies—require authors funded by federal grants to deposit peer-reviewed publications for immediate public access. This paper explains how grant-receiving institutions and their affiliated authors can dispel legal uncertainties and comply with the new public access policies. Section I delineates how valid prior licenses enable public deposit of manuscripts notwithstanding later publishing agreements transferring copyright to the journals. Section II discusses the different versions of a manuscript created during the publication process. Section III describes the different types of third-party contributions incorporated into the different versions at different stages. Section IV explains that most of what referees, editors, and journal staff contribute to an author's manuscript is uncopyrightable. For the few copyrightable elements that can be traced back to referees and editors, Section V explains when an author receives implied license that enables public deposits in accordance with federal public access policies. Though current federal public access policies do not require the deposit of the final published version of a manuscript unless explicitly allowed by a contract with the journal, looking ahead to further expanding the reach of federally funded research, Section VI examines the legal considerations related to making such final versions publicly accessible. Section VII summarizes the key considerations discussed in the paper to help institutions develop internal policies and practices that facilitate public access for authors' scholarly works.