Inspired Leadership in R&D: The New Face of Public Access to Federal R&D Results

“Scientific research supported by the Federal Government catalyzes innovation breakthroughs that drive our economy. The results of that research become the grist for new insights and are assets for progress in areas such as health, energy, the environment, agriculture, and national security” (Office of Science and Technology Policy Memo on Public Access, 2/22/2013). In order to accelerate progress in science and technology, the White House called on R&D agencies to develop plans to increase public access to peer-reviewed scientific literature and data sets. The National Institutes of Health has had a legislative mandate for years to provide such public access.

With both Executive and Legislative requirements for broader public access to journal articles and datasets, agencies are opening access to vast quantities of scientific outputs—a movement that has growing momentum across the globe.

The Department of Energy (DOE) exists to address energy, national security, and environmental concerns through science and technology. This effort can be accelerated through public access. Using a “green open access” model, agencies are beginning to provide free public access to scientific journal articles, generally within 12 months of publication.

A summary of U.S. agencies’ public access progress will be provided in this presentation, with special emphasis on the model used by the Department of Energy and its national laboratories through the DOE Public Access Gateway for Energy and Science, or DOE PAGES. The session will discuss the progress of Federal science agencies in providing free public access to journal articles—and show how to take advantage of public access for R&D.

Key Take-Aways:

• How best to take advantage of the new face of public access to Federal R&D results.
• Annual U.S. Federal R&D spending of $140 billion results in more than 200,000 scholarly journal articles per year and many thousands more datasets. 
• Unleashing the scientific and economic potential of this intellectual output was the primary objective of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy when it required Federal R&D agencies to provide free public access to unclassified journal articles and datasets resulting from Federal research funding.