Open Access News

Now the agency has released version 5.0 of the report (January 20, 2006). It doesn't discuss OA to literature but strongly endorses OA to data. Excerpt:

At the international level, a number of nations and international organizations have already recognized the broad societal, economic, and scientific benefits that result from open access to science and engineering digital data. In 2004 more than thirty nations, including the United States, declared their joint commitment to work toward the establishment of common access regimes for digital research data generated through public funding. Since the international exchange of scientific data, information and knowledge promises to significantly increase the scope and scale of research and its corresponding impact, these nations are working together to define the implementation steps necessary to enable the global science and engineering system. The U.S. community is engaged through the National Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA). CODATA is working with its international partners, including the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICTSI), the World Data Centers (WDCs) and others, to create a Global Information Commons for Science. As currently conceived, this online “open-access knowledge space” will: promote the promise of easy access to and use of scientific data and information; promote wider adoption of successful methods and models for providing open availability on a sustainable basis; facilitate reuse of publicly-funded scientific data and information, as well as cooperative sharing of research materials and tools among researchers; and, encourage and coordinate the efforts of many stakeholders in the world’s diverse science and engineering community to achieve these objectives....

At the institutional level, colleges and universities are developing approaches to digital data archiving, curation, and analysis. They are sharing best practices to develop digital libraries that collect, preserve, index and share research and education material produced by faculty and other individuals within their organizations. The technological implementations of these systems are often open-source and support interoperability among their adopters. University-based research libraries and research librarians are positioned to make significant contributions in this area, where standard mechanisms for access and maintenance of scientific digital data may be derived from existing library standards developed for print material. These efforts are particularly important to NSF as the agency considers the implications of not just making all data generated with NSF funding broadly accessible, but of also promoting the responsible organization and management of these data such that they are widely usable....

Motivated by a vision in which science and engineering digital data are routinely deposited in well-documented form, are regularly and easily consulted and analyzed by specialists and nonspecialists alike, are openly accessible while suitably protected, and are reliably preserved, NSF’s five-year goal is twofold: [1] To catalyze the development of a system of science and engineering data collections that is open, extensible and evolvable; and [2] To support development of a new generation of tools and services facilitating data mining, integration, analysis, and visualization essential to turning data into new knowledge and understanding....The agency will also develop a suite of coherent data policies that emphasize open access and effective organization and management of digital data, while respecting the data needs and requirements within science and engineering domains....

The following principles will guide the agency’s FY 2006 through FY 2010 investments....Science and engineering data generated with NSF funding will be readily accessible and easily usable, and will be appropriately, responsibly and reliably preserved....

Data tools created and distributed through these projects will include not only access and ease-of-use tools, but tools to assist with data input, tools that maintain or enforce formatting standards, and tools that make it easy to include or create metadata in real time. Clearinghouses and registries from which all metadata, ontology, and markup language standards are provided, publicized, and disseminated must be developed and supported, together with the tools for their implementation. Data accessibility and usability will also be improved with the support of means for automating cross-ontology translation....

Through a suite of coherent policies designed to recognize different data needs and requirements within communities, NSF will promote open access to well-managed data recognizing that this is essential to continued U.S. leadership in science and engineering....In addition to addressing the technological challenges inherent in the creation of a national data framework, NSF’s data policies will be redesigned to overcome existing sociological and cultural barriers to data sharing and access. Two actions are critical. NSF will conduct an inventory of existing policies, to bring them into accord across programs and to ensure coherence. This will lead to the development of a suite of harmonized policy statements supporting data open access and usability. NSF’s actions will promote a change in culture such that the collection and deposition of all appropriate digital data and associated metadata become a matter of routine for investigators in all fields. This change will be encouraged through an NSF-wide requirement for data management plans in all proposals. These plans will be considered in the merit review process, and will be actively monitored post-award....

[M]any large science and engineering projects are international in scope, where national laws and international agreements directly affect data access and sharing practices. Differences arise over privacy and confidentiality, from cultural attitudes to ownership and use, in attitudes to intellectual property protection and its limits and exceptions, and because of national security concerns. Means by which to find common ground within the international community must continue to be explored.