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.

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 to ERIC any peer-reviewed, final manuscripts upon acceptance for publication in a peer-reviewed journal or as a final deliverable, 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. It is best to contact the federal grant or contracting officer to clarify any questions.

Grants and contracts awarded from 2012 through FY 2024 are subject to the U.S. Department of Education’s Plan and Policy Development Guidance for Public Access

• Awardees must submit their final, peer-reviewed 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.

Grants and contracts awarded from FY 2025 and forward are subject to the U.S. Department of Education’s Improving Access to Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research Plan

• 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 complete metadata fields, which can include a full citation, abstract, digital object identifier (DOI) assigned by the publisher, ORCiDs, academic or organizational affiliations of authors, RORs, grant number(s) with the associated persistent identifiers (PID), information about the copyright license for the full text, and a link to underlying data.
• Awardees are responsible for submitting all necessary files for XML conversion. Specific requirements for the formatting of materials are under development and will be made available later.
• The full text will display in ERIC within 30 days of a complete set of files being submitted.

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 who received funding prior to FY 2025. For the list of participating sources, marked with an * (asterisk), 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 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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 after a 12-month embargo from 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 contract number will display in the ERIC record as an ED 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. Check the FAQ section Online Submission for Non-awardees for more information.

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 Online or Grantee Submission to ERIC.

Yes. Abstracts must be in paragraph form; bullet points or lists are not acceptable abstract formats. For guidance on how to create an abstract, please access our infographic “ERIC Guide to Abstract Writing” and the video Tips and Best Practices for Writing ERIC Abstracts.

Awardees may use the fillable PDF cover sheet found here to provide the title of the article, paper, or book (chapter); author name(s); journal citation, or conference name, 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 cover sheet must be attached to the PDF of the submitted content.