This Guide provides universities with a road map to initiate or bolster current efforts to create a robust system for ensuring effective public access to high-quality research data. The Guide aims to assist universities and their senior administrators in crafting consistent and uniform approaches to all aspects of research data management and sharing (i.e., data stewardship) on their campuses. The authors also hope the Guide will facilitate development of standard research data stewardship practices at Association of American Universities (AAU) and Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) member campuses that will promote compatibility and interoperability among institutions and ensure that institutions are able to retain academic control over their research results and associated data products. The Guide can also help federal research agencies and other government partners understand how universities are ensuring sponsored research is accessible. The Guide is divided into three sections: (1) framing an initiative to accelerate public access to research data; (2) establishing the priority and planning structures for implementing the initiative; and (3) implementation areas to consider in developing the plan. Beginning with the argument for embracing rigorous sharing of research data, the Guide outlines a series of recommendations and initial action steps for building and implementing a robust approach to supporting public access to research data. Additional resources and examples from campuses that have begun to build their systems are provided, along with questions to assess progress for each of the recommendations.