[JoeJonathan]

Everyone is just kind of assuming that sociological research is "federally funded," but what do we mean by that? Surely, not all research is federally funded. I work in an adjacent field with a similar grant structure, and "funding" is a combination of faculty salary and grants, which typically come from both federal organizations and foundations like Mellon, ACLS, etc.

While I'm all for open access (so long as authors don't need to pay to publish, which is often the case with open access journals), it would be a mistake to think research is publicly funded in the US to the same extent that it is in Europe or Latin America.

[bumby]

The memorandum calls for this to apply to unclassified research funded "wholly or in part" by federal funds. So, even a partial contribution by any of those mechanisms you identified may mark it for open access, although individual agencies are tasked with developing their own implementation policies.

What I'm afraid of occurring is over-leveraging classification of research as a means around this, if for no other reason than it's easier to implement/publish.

[pessimizer]

> "funding" is a combination of faculty salary and grants, which typically come from both federal organizations and foundations like Mellon, ACLS, etc.

This can also be a form of money laundering, though. You can easily end up completely government funded, but only through indirect means.