| iii. |
publications in formats that allow for machine-readability[1] and enabling broad accessibility through assistive devices; and, | |
| iii. | The circumstances or prerequisites needed to make the publications freely and publicly available by default, including any use and re-use rights, and which restrictions, including attribution, may apply. |
b) Scientific Data
| iii.i. | Scientific data[2] underlying peer-reviewed scholarly publications resulting from federally funded research should be made freely available and publicly accessible by default at the time of publication, unless subject to limitations as described in Section 3(c)(i) and should be subject to federal agency guidelines for researcher responsibilities regarding data management and sharing plans, consistent with Section 3(c) of this memorandum. | |
| iii.ii. | Federal agencies should develop approaches and timelines for sharing other federally funded scientific data that are not associated with peer-reviewed scholarly publications. | |
| iii. | Federal agencies should also provide guidance to researchers that ensures the digital repositories used align, to the extent practicable,[3] with the National Science and Technology Council document entitled “Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research.”[4] | |
| iii.iv. | Federal agency research: Agency public access plans and policies should clarify that federal researchers must follow federal laws and OMB policies that govern federal agencies’ information management practices and protect certain types of data,[5] to the extent that the scientific data created by, collected by, under the control or direction of, or maintained by the federal researchers is subject to those laws and policies. |
- ↑ “Machine readability” refers to a format that can be easily processed by a computer without human intervention while ensuring no semantic meaning is lost (such as the NISO Z39.96-2015 JATS XML standard currently used by PubMed Central).
- ↑ For the purposes of this memorandum, “scientific data” include the recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as of sufficient quality to validate and replicate research findings. Such scientific data do not include laboratory notebooks, preliminary analyses, case report forms, drafts of scientific papers, plans for future research, peer-reviews, communications with colleagues, or physical objects and materials, such as laboratory specimens, artifacts, or field notes. The definition of “scientific data” is similar to but broader than the term “research data” defined by 2 CFR 200.315 (e) and 45 CFR 75.322 (e).
- ↑ The term “extent practicable” is used to signal that suitable repositories for all types of data may not be available within the timeframe provided.
- ↑ See the 2022 NSTC Subcommittee on Open Science guidance: https://doi.org/10.5479/10088/113528
- ↑ For instance, the Paperwork Reduction Act, E-Government Act, Freedom of Information Act, Federal Information Security Management Act, Privacy Act, Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, Information Quality Act, Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act, Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects, Federal Records Act, and OMB guidance under OMB M-13-13 and subsequent open data policies (e.g., those to be promulgated under the OPEN Government Data Act and Pub. L. No. 115-435), OMB Circular A-130, and other laws and policies that require federal agencies to protect trade secrets, confidential commercial information, personally identifiable information, and other information which is protected under law or policy. See also, language from OMB M-19-15 with respect to maximizing the amount of data that can be made public using cutting-edge technologies to provide secure access to confidential data while reducing the risk of re-identification.
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