What are the requirements of the Institute of Education Sciences policy regarding public access to research?

In FY 2012, the Institute of Education Sciences began requiring those receiving federal grants and contracts to submit any peer-reviewed, final manuscripts upon acceptance for publication in a peer-reviewed journal or as a final deliverable to ERIC, unless the awardee or contractor published their work in a source that has agreed to submit the work on their behalf.

Currently, there are two sets of requirements for awardee submissions associated with the grant or contract award date.

• Awardees must submit their final original manuscript to ERIC upon acceptance by the journal. If an awardee publishes content in a source that has agreed to submit the work on behalf of the grantee or contractor, the author is not required to also submit the work to ERIC. The list of participating sources is at https://eric.ed.gov/?pajournals.
• The bibliographic record will appear in ERIC shortly after acceptance. Full text will be displayed in ERIC 12 months from the publication or completion date.

• The awardees must submit their materials to ERIC within five business days of the work becoming publicly accessible. This is defined as the date the manuscript is first available on a website as a published article or document, either the publication date or the online first date.
• Awardees are required to submit full metadata fields, including, but not limited to a full citation, abstract, digital object identifier (DOI) assigned by the publisher, ORCID iD and affiliation of authors, grant number with the associated persistent identifier (PID), information about the copyright license for the full text, and link to underlying data.
• Awardees are responsible for submitting all necessary files for XML conversion. This includes but is not limited to a Microsoft Word file of the full text, image files, and a file with alternative text. ERIC will also make available a formatted PDF if a Section 508-compliant PDF is submitted.
• The full text will display in ERIC within 30 days of a complete set of files being submitted.

For more information, access the IES Policy Regarding Public Access to Research and view the recorded webinar on submitting federally funded research to ERIC:

How do I know if I have to submit work to ERIC?

If your work was supported, in whole or in part, by a U.S. Department of Education grant or contract you must submit that work to ERIC under the guidelines based on the fiscal year of award. Work officially published by the Institute of Education Sciences, such as from the Regional Educational Laboratories, will automatically be submitted to ERIC by IES.

It is best to contact the federal grant or contracting officer to clarify any questions.

For additional details, see the response to the FAQ “What are the requirements of the Institute of Education Sciences Policy regarding Public Access to Research?”

Have any publishers agreed to submit final, peer-reviewed manuscripts to ERIC on an author’s behalf?

Publishers of almost 700 sources have agreed to submit work to ERIC on behalf of IES awardees and contractors. For the list of participating sources, click here.

If I need to upload my IES grant- or contract-funded work to ERIC, how should it be submitted?

U.S. Department of Education awardees and contractors are who are subject to making their work widely available in ERIC should submit those materials through the ERIC online submission portal. Select ‘Yes’ to the question “Has your work been funded (in whole or in part) by a U.S. government research grant or contract?” and enter the grant or contract number(s) into the submission form (multiple numbers should be separated by semi-colons) and include it on the submitted PDF. Please also specify the funding source within the Department and include this information on the submitted PDF as well.

I have received a grant or contract from IES. What if my publisher does not give me permission to deposit my work in ERIC?

It is the responsibility of awardees not to sign away their right to deposit their work in ERIC. Because submission to ERIC is a condition of the award, this must be negotiated prior to being accepted for publication.

How can I get a waiver?

There are no waivers for this policy. Please contact your grant officer with any questions about the conditions of your award.

What is the final, peer-reviewed manuscript?

The author’s final manuscript is defined as the version accepted for journal publication that includes all modifications from the peer-review process. This is different from the journal version in that it may not have final formatting and editing.

My article is “in press”—do I still need to put a date on the PDF?

Yes. Every manuscript must show either a publication, completion, acceptance, or “online first” date. The date shown on the PDF must be the same as the date entered in the submission form.

Do I still need to submit this work to ERIC if the journal I am publishing in is already cataloged in ERIC?

Possibly. To comply with your grant or contract, you must submit your final, peer-reviewed manuscript to ERIC unless the publisher of the source has agreed to submit the work on your behalf. For the list of participating sources, click here.

When do I need to submit my work to ERIC?

Based on the date of the award, awardees and contractors are required to submit their work to ERIC using the online submission portal as soon as the article has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication in a journal or accepted by the Department as a final deliverable, or is made publicly accessible..

When will my work be visible in ERIC?

The citation and abstract of awardee work will be available in ERIC within 90 days of submission. The full-text PDF of your work will be available in ERIC 12 months after the publication date for journal articles. Contractor-produced work will be available without an embargo period.

The full text of work produced under awards made in Fiscal Year 2025 and later will appear in ERIC within 30 days of submission.

Do all deliverables need to be submitted to ERIC?

If you produce work that is funded by IES, peer reviewed, but not published by IES, then it should be submitted through the awardee submission portal. Please contact your grant officer or Contracting Officer’s Representative for more information and to discuss how the public access policy applies to your work.

How will my work be displayed in ERIC?

Grant-funded work submitted through the online submission portal is currently displayed with Grantee Submission as the source on the ERIC record, with an ED number. The citation and abstract will be available immediately and the full text will be displayed 12 months embargo after the date of publication.

If the journal is cataloged by ERIC, there will also be a journal citation (EJ number) for that article as well.

Contractor-funded work will be displayed with the contractor’s name or the program name as the source. The work will be identified by the contract number entered in the ERIC record.

Future awardee submissions will be matched with the corresponding ERIC journal record from the regularly cataloged source and the combined record will have an EJ number.

Can my submission be considered an Awardee Submission if the funding comes from some other entity than the U.S. government?

No. This publication type is only used for work funded by the U.S. government. Work that is funded by countries outside of the United States, U.S.-based foundations or other private organizations, or state governments will be cataloged with Online Submission as the source.

Is there general information I need to know for submitting my work to ERIC?

Please access the Online Submission FAQs for additional information on how to prepare your work for submission to ERIC. These FAQs provide important details about the data and abstract you should have on hand prior to using the Online Submission Portal.

Access the infographic Tips for a Successful Awardee or Online Submission to ERIC.

The PDF of my awardee submission does not show all the required information. What should I do?

Awardees may use the fillable PDF coversheet found here to provide the title of the article, paper, or book (chapter); author name(s); journal citation, or conference, or book information, and publication date (for unpublished works, use the date of document completion). Critically, complete the funding acknowledgement section with the name of the funding agency and the grant or contract number(s). The coversheet must be attached to the PDF of the submitted content.