Repositories in the US Federal Funding Workflow: Lessons from the "Reasonable Costs for Public Access" Project

Repositories are a key component of the compliance ecosystem for federally funded research in the United States. Invest in Open Infrastructure conducted an ethnographic-style study on repository and institutional responses to public access policy changes initiated by the 2022 US Office of Science and Technology Policy Memorandum on Ensuring Free, Immediate and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research. Through interviews, workflow diagramming, desk research, and surveys, we outline the landscape of cost and price associated with providing the infrastructure to implement the public access policies. We identify labor as a major factor impacting repository cost, and note the challenges in pricing models that do not scale to enable the growth of labor needed to address these policies. From our workflow project, intervention points are identified and shared as opportunities to financially support repositories and reduce last-minute labor burdens on staff.