Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A federally funded basic-science project with no publication restrictions, openly shared results, and unrestricted foreign national participation, operating under the fundamental research exemption
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A sponsored project requiring pre-publication sponsor review, restricting results to US persons, or generating controlled unclassified information is not open research even if the underlying science is unclassified — it is closed by contractual or regulatory restriction, not by classification level
Editorial commentary
The open-versus-closed distinction is a foundational concept in research security and export-control policy. Open research is typically conducted under the fundamental research exemption, meaning it is intended for broad publication and international scientific exchange with no restrictions on participation or dissemination — the dominant norm across US academic research. Closed research covers everything that does not qualify: classified work, work involving controlled unclassified information (CUI), work subject to export controls (ITAR/EAR), and work carrying contractual publication restrictions imposed by a sponsor.
Why institutions separate the two operationally
Because the fundamental research exemption depends on a project actually being open — unrestricted publication, no access controls based on nationality, no prepublication sponsor review — many institutions establish separate physical spaces, IT environments, and personnel-access procedures for closed research specifically so its restrictions do not inadvertently attach to, or “contaminate,” an otherwise-open project. Losing the exemption on a project that was assumed open can trigger retroactive export-control and deemed export obligations that were never built into its original design.
Where this shows up in institutional compliance
A research security policy — increasingly required of US institutions receiving federal research funding under NSPM-33 — typically requires an explicit open/closed determination at proposal stage, since it drives disclosure requirements, foreign-national access screening, cybersecurity controls, and export-control classification. Multinational or allied-country consortia (see the Five Eyes alliance research context) add a further layer, since a project open to US persons may still be closed with respect to other nationalities depending on the specific control regime.
References
- NSDD-189 (1985); JASON Report on Fundamental Research Security (2019).
Also known as
open research vs restricted research · open/closed research distinction
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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