[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 214 (Friday, November 4, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 68518-68520]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-28623]


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OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY


Request for Information: Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly 
Publications Resulting From Federally Funded Research

ACTION: Notice of Request for Information (RFI).

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SUMMARY: In accordance with Section 103(b)(6) of the America COMPETES 
Reauthorization Act of 2010 (ACRA; Pub. L. 111-358), this Request for 
Information (RFI) offers the opportunity for interested individuals and 
organizations to provide recommendations on approaches for ensuring 
long-term stewardship and broad public access to the peer-reviewed 
scholarly publications that result from federally funded scientific 
research. The public input provided through this Notice will inform 
deliberations of the National Science and Technology Council's Task 
Force on Public Access to Scholarly Publications.
    Release Date: November 3, 2011.
    Response Date: January 2, 2012.

ADDRESSES: [email protected].

[[Page 68519]]

Issued By

    Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on behalf of the 
National Science and Technology Council (NSTC).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Purpose

    In accordance with Section 103(b)(6) of the America COMPETES 
Reauthorization Act of 2010 (ACRA; Pub. L. 111-358), this Request for 
Information (RFI) offers the opportunity for interested individuals and 
organizations to provide recommendations on approaches for ensuring 
long-term stewardship and broad public access to the peer-reviewed 
scholarly publications that result from federally funded scientific 
research. The public input provided through this Notice will inform 
deliberations of the National Science and Technology Council's Task 
Force on Public Access to Scholarly Publications.

Background

    The multi-agency Task Force on Public Access to Scholarly 
Publications (Task Force), established under the National Science and 
Technology Council (NSTC) Committee on Science (CoS), has been tasked 
with developing options for implementing the scholarly publications 
requirements of Section 103 of ACRA. OSTP will issue a report to 
Congress, in accordance with Section 103(e) of ACRA, describing 
priorities for the development of agency policies for ensuring broad 
public access to the results of federally funded unclassified research, 
the status of agency policies for public access to publications 
resulting from federally funded research, and a summary of public input 
collected from this RFI and other mechanisms.
    In 2009 and 2010, OSTP conducted a public consultation about policy 
options for expanding public access to federally funded peer-reviewed 
scholarly articles. The Task Force has reviewed the information 
submitted through OSTP's public consultation (the full set of comments 
can be viewed on the OSTP Web site [http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/03/08/public-access-policy-update]), experience with the various 
policies currently in use at a variety of Federal agencies, and a 
report from the congressionally convened Scholarly Publishing 
Roundtable (http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=10044). The 
Task Force 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 a 
stake in long-term preservation and access to the results of federally 
funded research,'' as described in Section 103(b)(6) of the ACRA. 
Specifically, OSTP seeks further public comment on the questions listed 
below, on behalf of the Task Force:
    (1) Are there steps that agencies could take to grow existing and 
new markets related to the access and analysis of peer-reviewed 
publications that result from federally funded scientific research? How 
can policies for archiving publications and making them publically 
accessible be used to grow the economy and improve the productivity of 
the scientific enterprise? What are the relative costs and benefits of 
such policies? What type of access to these publications is required to 
maximize U.S. economic growth and improve the productivity of the 
American scientific enterprise?
    (2) What specific steps can be taken to protect the intellectual 
property interests of publishers, scientists, Federal agencies, and 
other stakeholders involved with the publication and dissemination of 
peer-reviewed scholarly publications resulting from federally funded 
scientific research? Conversely, are there policies that should not be 
adopted with respect to public access to peer-reviewed scholarly 
publications so as not to undermine any intellectual property rights of 
publishers, scientists, Federal agencies, and other stakeholders?
    (3) What are the pros and cons of centralized and decentralized 
approaches to managing public access to peer-reviewed scholarly 
publications that result from federally funded research in terms of 
interoperability, search, development of analytic tools, and other 
scientific and commercial opportunities? Are there reasons why a 
Federal agency (or agencies) should maintain custody of all published 
content, and are there ways that the government can ensure long-term 
stewardship if content is distributed across multiple private sources?
    (4) Are there models or new ideas for public-private partnerships 
that take advantage of existing publisher archives and encourage 
innovation in accessibility and interoperability, while ensuring long-
term stewardship of the results of federally funded research?
    (5) What steps can be taken by Federal agencies, publishers, and/or 
scholarly and professional societies to encourage interoperable search, 
discovery, and analysis capacity across disciplines and archives? What 
are the minimum core metadata for scholarly publications that must be 
made available to the public to allow such capabilities? How should 
Federal agencies make certain that such minimum core metadata 
associated with peer-reviewed publications resulting from federally 
funded scientific research are publicly available to ensure that these 
publications can be easily found and linked to Federal science funding?
    (6) How can Federal agencies that fund science maximize the benefit 
of public access policies to U.S. taxpayers, and their investment in 
the peer-reviewed literature, while minimizing burden and costs for 
stakeholders, including awardee institutions, scientists, publishers, 
Federal agencies, and libraries?
    (7) Besides scholarly journal articles, should other types of peer-
reviewed publications resulting from federally funded research, such as 
book chapters and conference proceedings, be covered by these public 
access policies?
    (8) What is the appropriate embargo period after publication before 
the public is granted free access to the full content of peer-reviewed 
scholarly publications resulting from federally funded research? Please 
describe the empirical basis for the recommended embargo period. 
Analyses that weigh public and private benefits and account for 
external market factors, such as competition, price changes, library 
budgets, and other factors, will be particularly useful. Are there 
evidence-based arguments that can be made that the delay period should 
be different for specific disciplines or types of publications?
    Please identify any other items the Task Force might consider for 
Federal policies related to public access to peer-reviewed scholarly 
publications resulting from federally supported research.
    Response to this RFI is voluntary. Responders are free to address 
any or all the above items, as well as provide additional information 
that they think is relevant to developing policies consistent with 
increased public access to peer-reviewed scholarly publications 
resulting from federally funded research. Please note that the U.S. 
Government will not pay for response preparation or for the use of any 
information contained in the response.

How To Submit a Response

    All comments must be submitted electronically to: 
[email protected].
    Responses to this RFI will be accepted through January 2, 2012. You 
will receive an electronic confirmation acknowledging receipt of your 
response,

[[Page 68520]]

but will not receive individualized feedback on any suggestions. No 
basis for claims against the U.S. Government shall arise as a result of 
a response to this request for information or from the Government's use 
of such information.

Inquiries

    Specific questions about this RFI should be directed to the 
following email address: [email protected].
    Form should include:

[Assigned ID ]
[Assigned Entry date]
Name/Email
Affiliation/Organization
City, State
Comment 1
Comment 2
Comment 3
Comment 4
Comment 5
Comment 6
Comment 7
Comment 8

Please identify any other items the Task Force might consider for 
Federal policies related to public access to peer-reviewed scholarly 
publications resulting from federally supported research.

{Attachment is: Please attach any documents that support your comments 
to the questions.{time} 

Ted Wackler,
Deputy Chief of Staff.
[FR Doc. 2011-28623 Filed 11-3-11; 8:45 am]
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