The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy last week released two Requests for Information (RFI) that offer a great opportunity to weigh in on critical questions around access to the results of publicly-funded research. Read on and follow the links to contribute your two cents.
1. Public Access to Digital Data Resulting from Federally Funded Scientific Research. This RFI seeks “recommendations on approaches for ensuring long-term stewardship and encouraging broad public access to unclassified digital data that result from federally funded scientific research.” Public input will inform the National Science and Technology Council’s Interagency Working Group on Digital Data, which in 2009 issued a report Harnessing the Power of Digital Data (available here) that recommended agencies lay the foundations for digital scientific data policy and make their policies publicly available. We have seen response to this report in the NSF’s January 2011 requirement of a Data Management Plan, and a similar move by the NEH Office of Digital Humanities in June 2011. This same working group is now seeking additional insight from “non-Federal stakeholders, including the public, universities, nonprofit and for-profit publishers, libraries, federally funded and non-federally funded research scientists, and other organizations and institutions with an interest in long-term stewardship and improved public access to the results of federally funded research.”
Responses to this RFI must be received by January 12, 2012. Check here for more details, including specific questions to consider, and information on how to respond to this RFI.
2. Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications Resulting from Federally Funded Research. This request solicits input on “approaches for ensuring long-term stewardship and broad public access to the peer-reviewed scholarly publications that result from federally funded scientific research.” Public input will “inform deliberations of the National Science and Technology Council’s Task Force on Public Access to Scholarly Publications.” Responses must be received by January 12, 2012. Check here for more details and information on how to respond to this RFI.
