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December 14, 2009 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today. For other up-to-the-minute news, check out ITI’s Twitter account: @ITINewsBreaks. CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.

OSTP Launches Public Forum on Public Access Policy to Funded Research

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP; www.ostp.gov) within the Executive Office of the President, has requested input (RFI) from the community regarding enhancing public access to archived publications resulting from research funded by federal science and technology agencies. This RFI will be active from Dec. 10, 2009, to Jan. 7, 2010. Respondents are invited to respond online via the Public Access Policy Forum at www.whitehouse.gov/open, or they may submit responses via electronic mail.

Currently, the National Institutes of Health require that research funded by its grants be made available to the public online at no charge within 12 months of publication. The administration is seeking views as to whether this policy should be extended to other science agencies and, if so, how it should be implemented.

The discussion will focus on three major areas of interest:

• Implementation (Dec. 10-20): Which federal agencies are good candidates to adopt public access policies? What variables (field of science, proportion of research funded by public or private entities, etc.) should affect how public access is implemented at various agencies, including the maximum length of time between publication and public release?
• Features and Technology (Dec. 21-31): In what format should the data be submitted in order to make it easy to search and retrieve information and to make it easy for others to link to it? Are there existing digital standards for archiving and interoperability to maximize public benefit? How are these anticipated to change?
• Management (Jan. 1-7): What are the best mechanisms to ensure compliance? What would be the best metrics of success? What are the best examples of usability in the private sector (both domestic and international)? Should those who access papers be given the opportunity to comment or provide feedback?

Each of these topics will form the basis of a blog posting that will appear at www.whitehouse.gov/open and will be open for comment on the OSTP blog. The blog post announcing the forum is at http://blog.ostp.gov/2009/12/09/ostp-to-launch-public-forum-on-how-best-to-make-federally-funded-research-available-for-free. Full details are available in the Federal Register notice, www.ostp.gov/galleries/default-file/RFI%20Final%20for%20FR.pdf.

Source: OSTP