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U.S. Department of Energy Public Access Plan ‘Ensuring Free, Immediate and Equitable Access’ to the Results of Department of Energy Scientific Research
United States government work
Abstract
Introduction / Background
This document, the Public Access Plan (the Plan) for the Department of Energy (DOE or Department), including the National Nuclear Security Administration, presents the Department of Energy’s plan for increasing access to the results of the research and development (R&D) it supports in response to the August 25, 2022, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Memorandum, “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research”1 and to the previous February 22, 2013, OSTP Memorandum, “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research.”2 This Plan, which supplants the Department’s July 2014 Public Access Plan, was developed by DOE’s Office of Science and Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), with input from across DOE. The Plan outlines the Department’s approach to implementing the objectives of the OSTP memoranda. Through policies and systems discussed in this Plan, scholarly publications, datasets, and associated metadata resulting from research directly arising from DOE funding will become readily and immediately accessible to the public. This sets the stage for increased innovation, commercial opportunities, and accelerated scientific breakthroughs, while maximizing equitable delivery of Federally funded research results and ensuring that transparent procedures maintain scientific and research integrity. Ensuring free, immediate, and equitable access to DOE-supported research will help achieve DOE’s mission to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.
Following the key elements of OSTP’s August 25, 2022, memorandum, this Plan is comprised of three sections outlining how DOE will fulfill requirements for: 1) scientific publications, 2) scientific data, and 3) persistent identifiers (PIDs).
DOE will annually review the Plan, considering community feedback, technology changes, and operational improvements and will broadly communicate changes and revisions in requirements to the relevant communities.