The Pentagon will not force its researchers to make their work public

The US Department of Defense has decided not to create new rules requiring its funded researchers to make their work publicly available. This means military-funded research will continue to be less accessible to the public than research funded by other federal agencies.

Other federal agencies, like the National Institutes of Health, already require public access to research they fund. The Pentagon's decision means a large body of scientific and technical work, often with civilian applications, will remain behind paywalls or restricted access. This limits how quickly new discoveries can be built upon by the wider scientific community or used by the public.