[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 244 (Monday, December 21, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Page 79354]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-31983]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Geological Survey

[GX16EN05ESB0500]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Request for Comments

AGENCY: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Interior.

ACTION: Notice of a new information collection, Are literature searches 
finding your publications?

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SUMMARY: We (the U.S. Geological Survey) will ask the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) to approve the information collection (IC) 
described below. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 
1995, and as part of our continuing efforts to reduce paperwork and 
respondent burden, we invite the general public and other Federal 
agencies to take this opportunity to comment on this IC.

DATES: To ensure that your comments are considered, we must receive 
them on or before February 19, 2016.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this information collection to 
the Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Geological Survey, 
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive MS 807, Reston, VA 20192 (mail); (703) 648-
7197 (fax); or [email protected] (email). Please reference 
`Information Collection 1028-NEW, Are literature searches finding your 
publications? in all correspondence.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Abigail Lynch, Research Fish 
Biologist, at (703) 648-4097 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract

    Inland fisheries are especially vulnerable to the impacts of 
climate change at a global scale; although inland fish are vital to 
ecosystem health and function and provide invaluable ecosystem services 
to communities worldwide, much research remains to be done. Researchers 
have been projecting and documenting impacts of climate change on 
fisheries since the 1980s; thus, there is a large body of literature 
available online. Traditional search engines provide large outputs of 
studies and reports that must be individually screened for relevance 
when searching for climate change effects on fisheries. This large 
output could result in the exclusion of some studies in analyses of the 
effects of climate change on inland fisheries. Our goal is to compare 
traditional literature search methods with using a network of fisheries 
professionals to identify relevant climate change and fisheries studies 
to determine if both methods yield similar or dissimilar results.
    We plan to query research scientists belonging to major 
professional fisheries societies via electronic correspondence and 
request a list of their already published references to include in the 
collection. We are specifically looking for published studies 
addressing projected and documented effects of climate change on 
fisheries. The information will be used to generate a scientific 
manuscript. The only Personal Identifiable Information we will collect 
is the scientist's name. Our information collection request directly 
aligns to the mission of the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife 
Science Center (NCCWSC). One of NCCWSC's goals is to deliver products, 
information, and tools to scientists and stakeholders on climate change 
and wildlife science, and the resulting manuscript aligns with these 
goals.

II. Data

    OMB Control Number: 1028-NEW.
    Title: Are literature searches finding your publications?
    Type of Request: New information collection.
    Affected Public: English-speaking research scientists.
    Respondent's Obligation: None. Participation is strictly voluntary.
    Frequency of Collection: One time.
    Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 100. Respondents will be 
made up of mostly academics (i.e., university professors). Some will 
have federal affiliations.
    Estimated Total Number of Annual Responses: 100.
    Estimated Time per Response: 5 minutes per response.
    Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 8.3 hours.
    Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping ``Non-Hour Cost'' Burden: 
None.

III. Request for Comments

    We are soliciting comments as to: (a) Whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for the agency to perform its 
duties, including whether the information is useful; (b) the accuracy 
of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of 
information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, usefulness, and clarity 
of the information to be collected; and (d) how to minimize the burden 
on the respondents, including the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.
    Please note that the comments submitted in response to this notice 
are a matter of public record. Before including your personal mailing 
address, phone number, email address, or other personally identifiable 
information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire 
comment, including your personally identifiable information, may be 
made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your 
comment to withhold your personally identifiable information from 
public view, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Shawn Carter,
Senior Scientist, National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center.
[FR Doc. 2015-31983 Filed 12-18-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4338-11-P