OSTP Issues Progress Report on Public Access to Scholarly Publications

Vol. 41, No. 3, July 2012
Printer friendly version of Newsletter

(Published with permission. "COSSA Washington UPDATE," April 16, 2012, Volume 31, Issue 7)

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), complying with provisions of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, has issued a report on Interagency Public Access Coordination. The report focuses on "policies related to the dissemination and long-term stewardship of the results of unclassified research, including digital data and peer-reviewed scholarly publications, supported wholly or in part by funding from the Federal science agencies."

The report asserts that: "The Administration has long recognized the importance of improving the management of and access to the results of federally funded scientific research including digital data and peer-reviewed publications. Since 2008, OSTP has been working to coordinate with agencies to develop policies that assure widespread public access to and long-term stewardship of the results of federally funded unclassified research." In 2009, OSTP issued an initial Request for Information (RFI) on access to scholarly publications resulting from research conducted with Federal funding.

OSTP has established a Task Force on Public Access to Scholarly Publications (PASP) under the Committee on Science of the National Science and Technology Council. The PASP includes representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Veterans Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, and the Executive Office of the President including the Office of Management and Budget and the OSTP.

The Task Force is working, according to OSTP, on common objectives for the development of individual agency policies for ensuring public access to the results of federally funded research, including peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles and other peer-reviewed publications. It has, according to the report, gathered preliminary information, which includes the aforementioned RFI; a report from the congressionally convened Scholarly Publishing Roundtable; and recent recommendations from associations, societies, companies, and other organizations through a second RFI issued in November 2011. Responses to the RFIs have demonstrated strong support for agency action to allow public access to scholarly publications, with about two-thirds of respondents favoring making publications freely available to the public within 12 months of the publication date.

At the same time, agencies and public commentators are cognizant of the essential role that publishers and the peer review system play in advancing the scientific enterprise. Given these issues, "the PASP set out to explore what steps could be taken to expand public access while preserving the value that publishers provide to the scientific enterprise, creating new business opportunities, and maximizing the economic and societal benefits of the Federal investment in research and the resulting publications."

In examining policies already in place, OSTP found that the National Institutes of Health, responding to FY 2008 appropriations bill language, has a policy in place. OSTP describes it as "pretty straightforward." It utilizes the National Library of Medicine's Pub Med Central (PMC) database. The policy involves:

NIH awards fund institutions to conduct research. Compliance with the Public Access Policy is a term and condition of award.
NIH awards are used to produce peer-reviewed papers. NIH awards fund salary support to write papers and publications costs, such as page charges and open access fees.
The author, as the creator of the work, holds the copyright in the original paper. The author gives NIH a non-exclusive right to copyright to the original paper in PMC and may transfer to the publisher the balance of his rights, including an exclusive copyright for the final published version of the paper.
Authors of papers using NIH funds may publish in any journal they choose, provided they reserve a portion of their copyright to ensure their final peer-reviewed author manuscript is posted to PMC. Alternatively, authors may make arrangements for the publisher to post the paper to PMC.
Publishers can choose to not review or publish papers under the provisions of the NIH Public Access Policy.
Once a paper has been accepted for publication, the author can submit his or her final peer reviewed manuscript to PMC (or the publisher can start the process), or the publisher can submit the final published article to PMC directly.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), however, has moved more slowly on this issue. The National Science Board, its advisory body, has been more interested in data collection and preservation issues. According to the report, NSF's response has been the implementation of a Project Outcomes Report (POR) requirement for all new awards made or existing awards that receive incremental or supplemental funding on or after 4 January 2010.

The PORs are written by Principal Investigators (PIs) specifically for the public, to provide insight into the outcomes of NSF-funded research. These reports are posted on http://www.research.gov for public viewing exactly as submitted by the PI or a co-PI. Acknowledging that these PORs are not a substitute for peer-reviewed scientific publications in content or value, NSF claims they are a source of information to members of the general public who are interested in learning how taxpayer dollars expand the Nation's scientific and engineering knowledge. Since the reporting requirement went into effect, about 3,500 PORs have been posted on Research.gov. NSF continues to discuss the issue of public access to peer-reviewed publications.

This whole issue continues to interest Congress with the Federal Research Public Access Act introduced in this session by Rep. Michael Doyle (D-PA) and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX).

History of Science Society

OSTP Issues Progress Report on Public Access to Scholarly Publications

Quick Links....

Primary Navigation

Search

History of Science Society

Frequently Used Sites