Clear rules for temporary restrictions

Notwithstanding the general aim of providing timely open access to research data and other research-relevant digital objects from public funding, recognise that researchers and institutions may require a reasonable limited period of exclusive use of the research data and other research-relevant digital objects they produce, for example to provide time for data analysis and preparation of final results and/or intellectual property claims.

Any processes involving restrictions, such as embargo periods, should be subject to clear rules and limitations developed by funding agencies in co-operation with the relevant stakeholder communities.

To implement this provision effectively, the following options can be considered:

• Establish flexible policies for embargo periods, such as a standard time-limited embargo period after Digial Object Identifier (DOI) registration, allowing researchers sufficient time for data analysis, final results prearation, or intellectual property claims before open access. Funding agencies should allow researchers a defined window to exploit their data for publications and other outputs, while maintaining transparency about embargo timelines. 

• Develop embargo rules tailored to disciplinary needs, with input from scholarly societies, associations, and funding agencies, ensuring relevance and practicality for specific fields. Policies should avoid “one size fits all” approaches by offering sufficient flexibility for different research contexts, ensuring that policies address varying requirements across disciplines and stakeholders.

• Establish IP-safe embargo periods that allow researchers to file patents before data release, with maximum time limits to prevent indefinite restrictions.

• Encourage dual licensing models, where commercial applications are protected, but non-commercial academic research can access data sooner.

• Encourage scholarly societies to produce discipline-specific guidelines on temporary restrictions, ensuring alignment with community norms and research practices.

• Require that researchers provide justification of embargo periods in Grant Applications and Data Management Plans (DMPs).

• Implement clear approval processes where funding agencies review and approve/deny embargo requests based on standardised criteria.

• Require early data submission to repositories, ensuring it remains secure and is released automatically at the end of the embargo period.

• Promote mutual recognition agreements between funding agencies to standardise embargo policies for multinational research projects.

Establishing clear rules for temporary restrictions on research data poses several challenges: 

• There is no globally standardised embargo policy. Different funders and countries have varying embargo durations and rules. Lack of policy alignment complicates international collaborations, where researchers work under multiple conflicting policies.

• Defining "reasonable" exclusive use periods across disciplines is challenging as different research disciplines have varying data production and analysis timelines. 
  • For example clinical trials and social science studies require extended embargoes for ethical reasons, whereas astronomy or physics datasets may be released immediately. 
  • No universal timeframe exists for data exclusivity, making it difficult to create a one-size-fits-all policy.

• There is a risk of imposinng overly restrictive or overly permissive embargoes that either hinder scientific progress or fail to protect researchers' interests.

• Early data sharing could undermine patentability, especially in biotechnology, engineering, and pharmaceuticals. Therefore, researchers and institutions often seek IP protection (patents, commercial rights) before making data openly available.

• Lack of transparency in embargo justifications can lead to unnecessary delays in data availability. However enforcing strict justification criteria without adding excessive administrative burdens on researchers and institutionsis also a challenge.

• Ensuring researchers actually release data after the embargo period expires is challenging. Lack of effective enforcement mechanisms leads to indefinite delays in data availability.

• Some researchers may extend embargoes strategically to delay competition rather than for legitimate reasons (e.g., delaying open access until after multiple publications). Striking a balance between meeting legitimate needs and abusing embargo extensions is a challenging task.