[open-economics] Fwd: Hope and change for research data in the US

Mon Feb 25 12:03:24 UTC 2013

White House releases a policy announcement about public access to the
results of federally funded research, including open data...

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From: *Dryad news and views*
Date: Sunday, February 24, 2013
Subject: [New post] Hope and change for research data in the US
To: velichka.dimitrova at okfn.org

**
  tjvision posted: "Yesterday, the Obama administration made a long-awaited
announcement regarding public access to the results of federally funded
research in the United States. There has been considerable attention given
to the implications for research publications (a "    Respond to this post
by replying above this line
      New post on *Dryad news and views*
<http://blog.datadryad.org/author/tjvision/>  Hope and change for research
data in the US<http://blog.datadryad.org/2013/02/24/hope-and-change-for-research-data-in-the-us/>
by
tjvision <http://blog.datadryad.org/author/tjvision/>

[image: OSTP homepage]<http://datadryad.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/ostp-screenshot.jpg>Yesterday,
the Obama administration made a long-awaited
announcement<http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/22/expanding-public-access-results-federally-funded-research>regarding
public access to the results of federally funded research in the
United States.

There has been considerable<http://blogs.nature.com/news/2013/02/us-white-house-announces-open-access-policy.html>
attention<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/science/us-speeds-access-to-publicly-financed-scientific-research.html?_r=0>given
to the implications for research publications (a concise analysis
here <https://plus.google.com/109377556796183035206/posts/8hzviMJeVHJ>).
Less discussed so far -- but just as far reaching -- the new policy also
has quite a lot to say about research data, a topic on which the White
House solicited, and received, an earful of
input<http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/library/digitaldata>just
over a year ago.

What does the directive<http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf>actually
require?  All federal government agencies with at least $100M in
R&D expenditures must develop, in the next six month, policies for digital
data arising from non-classified research that address a host of
objectives, including:

   - to "*maximize access, by the general public and without charge*, to
   digitally formatted scientific data created with federal funds" while
   recognizing that there are cases in which preservation and access may not
   be desirable or feasible.
   - to promote *greater use of data management plans* for both intramural
   and extramural grants and contracts, including review of such plans and
   mechanisms for ensuring compliance
   - to allow inclusion of appropriate *costs for data management and
   access in grants*
   - to promote the deposit of data in publicly accessible databases
   - to address issues of attribution to scientific data sets
   - to support training in data management and stewardship
   - to "outline options for developing and sustaining repositories for
   scientific data in digital formats, taking into account the efforts of
   public and private sector entities"

Interestingly, the directive is silent on the issue of embargo periods for
research data, neither explicitly allowing or disallowing them.

In the words<https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/increasing-public-access-results-scientific-research>of
White House Science Advisor John Holdren

...the memorandum requires that agencies start to address the need to
improve upon the management and sharing of scientific data produced with
Federal funding. Strengthening these policies will promote entrepreneurship
and jobs growth in addition to driving scientific progress. Access to
pre-existing data sets can accelerate growth by allowing companies to focus
resources and efforts on understanding and fully exploiting discoveries
instead of repeating basic, pre-competitive work already documented
elsewhere.

The breadth of research impacted by this directive is notable.  Based on
the White House's proposed 2013
budget,<http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/fy2013rd_summary.pdf>the
covered agencies would spend more then $60 billion on R&D.  A partial
list includes:

   - The National Institutes of Health (NIH)
   - The National Science Foundation (NSF)
   - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
   - The Department of Energy (DOE)
   - The Department of Agriculture (USDA)
   - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
   - The National Institutes for Standards and Technology (NIST)
   - The Department of the Interior (which includes the Geological Survey)
   - The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
   - and even the Smithsonian Institution

We applaud OSTP for moving to dramatically improve the availability of
research data collected in the public interest with federal funds.

You can read the full memo
here<http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf>:
the data policies are covered in Section 4.
  *tjvision <http://blog.datadryad.org/author/tjvision/>* | 2013/02/24 at
10:14 | Categories: Uncategorized <http://blog.datadryad.org/?cat=1> | URL:
http://wp.me/pBWXc-to

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Velichka Dimitrova
Open Economics Project Coordinator
Open Knowledge Foundation
http://okfn.org | http://openeconomics.net
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