"The US’ Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has launched a public consultation on its Public Access Policy. The Administration is seeking public input on access to publicly-funded research results, such as those that appear in academic and scholarly journal articles. Currently, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 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.

OSTP launched an interactive, online discussion on December 10. The discussion is focused on three major areas of interest. These include: Implementation (Dec. 10 to 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 a public release?; Features and Technology (Dec. 21 to 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 maximise public benefit? How are these anticipated to change; and Management (Jan. 1 to 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.

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Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter