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NSF Submission Essentials (updated)
Sources:
- NSF Public Access Plan 2.0: Ensuring Open, Immediate and Equitable Access to National Science Foundation Funded Research
- NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG). (NSF 24-1) (Effective: May 20, 2024) [superseded by supplements]
- Implementation of Policy Changes to Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 24-1), Supplement 2 (Effective: January 22, 2026)
Impacts: Final version of research products accepted for publication after peer-review in scholarly journals, juried conference papers, or workshop proceedings (collectively referred to as author’s accepted manuscripts or AAMs).
Timeline: NSF award recipients with awards approved on or after January 22, 2026, should deposit their author’s accepted manuscripts or Versions of Record into the NSF Public Access Repository (PAR) at or before the time of publication. While not yet confirmed, recipients of awards approved before July 22, 2026, will likely need to continue utilizing a 12-month embargo period for their AAMs during the PAR submission process.
Who Submits: PI’s
What to Submit: Peer-reviewed journal manuscripts, juried conference papers, or workshop proceedings accepted for publication. Versions of record may be submitted if author has the right to do so.
Format: PDF/A (see below)
Where to Submit: research.gov
Repository: NSF Public Access Repository (NSF-PAR)
Notes:
- Special fees for the purpose of making published versions of record (VORs) publicly accessible are allowable costs but such payments are not required for deposits of AAMs in PAR.
- Successfully submitted manuscript or VOR metadata automatically appears in project reports.
- Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) associated with any PAR entry must be included in the PAR record (e.g., a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) assigned to a VOR). If no PIDs are associated with an item being deposited in PAR, minimal descriptive metadata should be entered manually. Note that upon the completion of a PAR deposit, the new entry is assigned a PARID that also functions as a PID.
Saving or Converting to a PDF/A
PDF/A is a specialized format used for archiving and the long-term preservation of electronic documents.
- Word documents may be converted to the PDF/A format through the Save As function.
- PDF documents may be converted to the PDF/A format in Adobe products depending on the application and/or version.
For assistance with Adobe products, please contact the DoIT Helpdesk.
Public Access Service staff are happy to convert documents on request.
