FAQs
E-Link FAQs (link is external) | Public Access FAQs (link is external)
- What is STIP?
- How does STIP Support DOE's STI Responsibilities and Objectives?
- What is STIP's Strategic Goal?
- What is Scientific and Technical Information (STI)?
- How is STI disseminated?
- What are the roles of representatives from Headquarters Programs, DOE Operations & Field Offices, DOE Laboratories and technology centers, sites and facilities?
- Who are the representatives from Headquarters Programs, DOE Operations and Field Offices, DOE Laboratories and technology centers, sites and facilities?
- What type of PDF should be used for submission?
- What is ORCID and its mission statement?
- What is an ORCID Number?
- How can I obtain an ORCID ID?
- How long will OSTI keep my STI record?
- I found a box of DOE funded STI full-text documents, should I send to OSTI?
- How does OSTI handle FOIA requests for records?
- How does OSTI protect limited records?
What is STIP?
- Required through a DOE Directive, but is a collaborative partnership.
- Comprised of designated representatives from Headquarters Programs, DOE Operations & Field Offices, DOE Laboratories and technology centers, sites and facilities.
- Effectively manages the DOE-sponsored STI, therefore ensuring that U.S. citizens are realizing a maximum return on investment, while ensuring information is appropriately marked and managed in accordance with any statutory access limitations.
- Provides a framework for routine communication, coordination, and information exchange.
How does STIP Support DOE's STI Responsibilities and Objectives?
- Provides accountability and historical record for labs' & offices' R&D and technological activities through submission to OSTI.
- Ensures DOE's statutory mandates for STI management are met.
- Enhances transparency of DOE research by maintaining robust STI programs.
- Ensures appropriate announcement and availability restrictions are applied by the originating organization in accordance with statutory, regulatory, Executive order, and/or other Departmental requirements.
- Saves research dollars by reducing duplication and enabling reuse of previous research; i.e., building blocks for others.
- Extends the reach and impact of DOE's research as well as the research from each lab, site, office, and awardee.
What is STIP's Strategic Goal?
Creating, collecting, and sharing STI through a robust, collaborative, and innovative Program forged by all Departmental elements to facilitate access to STI and allow maximum use of the information resulting from DOE research and other technological activities.
What is Scientific and Technical Information (STI)?
Information products deemed by the originator to be useful beyond the originating site... which contain findings and technological innovations resulting from research and development (R&D) efforts and scientific and technological work of scientists, researchers, and engineers, whether Federal employee, contractor, or financial assistance recipient... Scientific findings are communicated through various media e.g., textual, multimedia, audiovisual, and digital - and are produced in a range of products... DOE-funded STI originates primarily from research and other activities performed by site/facility management contractors, direct DOE-executed prime procurements, DOE-operated research activities, and financial assistance recipients, in addition to DOE employees.
How is STI disseminated?
OSTI . . .
- Develops and hosts search tools to make DOE R&D results available.
- Partners with Google, Bing, and others to make DOEs deep database content accessible to surface web search engines.
- Federates search across U.S. and international science agencies, providing single-query portals.
What are the roles of representatives from Headquarters Programs, DOE Operations & Field Offices, DOE Laboratories and technology centers, sites and facilities?
STI Managers (STI Points of Contact at Nat'l Labs & Major Facilities)
The role of STI Managers is to stay abreast of the requirements of DOE's STI Program and coordinate the implementation of STIP related requirements. They serve as the main STIP POC for their respective site/facility participating in various DOE STIP activities. Normally, one STI Manager is appointed at each contractor site. While roles and responsibilities may vary from site to site, depending on the specific language of DOE contracts, the STI activities of STI Managers generally are the same.
Technical Information Officers (DOE Offices)
Technical Information Officers (TIO) serve as the principal DOE Office POC and assistant to, and liaison with, the DOE OSTI, that serves as the Department's office charged with the Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP). The TIOs are to be familiar with the STI Programs within their DOE Office (given they have contracting financial assistance and/or acquisition activities) and for their major site/facility management contractor(s) STI Program to discern compliance with the DOE O 241.1B. They must maintain an up-to-date knowledge-base of the STI Program activities and provide timely feedback on issues as they emerge. While roles and responsibilities may differ, each major DOE element shall designate a TIO to perform STI-related activities...
STI Releasing Officials
Releasing Officials have responsibility for ensuring that STI has undergone appropriate sensitivity reviews and that subsequent recommendation to OSTI is made via established systems regarding release of STI in the public domain (i.e., unlimited announcement) or the application of DOE-approved access limitations, as well as other laws, policies, and schedules.
Contract Officers and Contract Specialists (DOE Awarding Offices)
A Contracting Officer is the DOE official authorized to execute awards on behalf of DOE and is responsible for the business management and non-program aspects of the financial assistance process. They are responsible for ensuring that the receipt of required scientific/technical reporting deliverables as identified on DOE F 4600.2, Federal Assistance Reporting Checklist, and in the contract are monitored and provided to DOE/OSTI.
Who are the representatives from Headquarters Programs, DOE Operations and Field Offices, DOE Laboratories and technology centers, sites and facilities?
See STIP Community for a full list of contacts.
What type of PDF should be used for submission?
OSTI prefers PDFs that meet one of the PDF/A compliance standards. PDF compliance helps ensure the PDF will be readable well into the future. Many recent PDF generating software packages have options for making PDF/A compliant files. PDF/A-1a, PDF/A-2a, and PDF/A-3a achieve two of OSTI's goals of preservation and accessibility. Generally, a PDF/A-1a PDF has the following attributes:
- All fonts used must be embedded. OSTI has experienced problems with some PDFs using exotic fonts not available on average equipment viewing the PDF.
- The PDF should use device independent color.
- The PDF should contain a minimum set of XMP metadata (handled by the PDF generating software).
- Document hierarchy should be included.
- The PDF should be tagged.
- The PDF should use Unicode character maps.
- The language needs to be specified for the entire document, each page, or each text object.
- The PDF cannot be encrypted.
- The PDF should not use LZW compression.
- The PDF should not have embedded files (for PDF/A-1a only).
- The PDF should not have external content references.
- The PDF should not have multimedia content.
- The PDF should not use JavaScript.
- There should be no transparency (for PDF/A-1a only).
PDF/A-1a compliance requires more tags than other PDF compliance standards, when compared to PDF/A-1b, which is less strict, and PDF/A-2 and 3, which allow for more flexibility. However, meeting any of the PDF/A requirements alone is not enough to concur with OSTI's PDF best practices.
What is ORCID and its mission statement?
ORCID aims to solve the name ambiguity problem in research and scholarly communications by creating a central registry of unique identifiers for individual researchers and an open and transparent linking mechanism between ORCID and other current researcher ID schemes. These identifiers, and the relationships among them, can be linked to the researcher's output to enhance the scientific discovery process and to improve the efficiency of research funding and collaboration within the research community.
Simply put, an ORCID number for an author is somewhat like a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for a journal article or a dataset:
- It serves as a way to uniquely distinguish one object from another - in this case, the objects are author/researcher names.
- The ID number can be "resolved" [i.e. matched up to a name and bio] by the ORCID Registry, a central database of all the ID numbers ever assigned. Conversely, a personal name can be searched in the Registry if a user desires to know if an author has an ORCID. If the author does have one, the ORCID Registry will provide the number back to the inquiring user.
- The ORCID number can be included when creative or scientific words are cited in published literature or databases. A long-term goal is that an Internet search on the ID number would infallibly retrieve all of that particular author's other works and none of anyone else's...even if another author's name happened to be exactly the same.
What is an ORCID Number?
Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) and the identifying number that it provides to authors. ORCID, Inc (link is external). formed in 2010 and officially launched, following beta testing with early adopters, in 2012. The Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) became an ORCID member in May of 2013.
Simply put, an ORCID number for an author is somewhat like a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for a journal article or a dataset:
- It serves as a way to uniquely distinguish one object from another - in this case, the objects are author/researcher names.
- The ID number can be "resolved" [i.e. matched up to a name and bio] by the ORCID Registry, a central database of all the ID numbers ever assigned. Conversely, a personal name can be searched in the Registry if a user desires to know if an author has an ORCID. If the author does have one, the ORCID Registry will provide the number back to the inquiring user.
- The ORCID number can be included when creative or scientific words are cited in published literature or databases. A long-term goal is that an Internet search on the ID number would infallibly retrieve all of that particular author's other works and none of anyone else's...even if another author's name happened to be exactly the same.
ORCID's mission statement says:
ORCID aims to solve the name ambiguity problem in research and scholarly communications by creating a central registry of unique identifiers for individual researchers and an open and transparent linking mechanism between ORCID and other current researcher ID schemes. These identifiers, and the relationships among them, can be linked to the researcher's output to enhance the scientific discovery process and to improve the efficiency of research funding and collaboration within the research community.
How can I obtain an ORCID ID?
An author wishing to obtain an ORCID ID can simply visit the ORCID website (link is external) and apply. After answering basic questions, the author/researcher is then assigned a unique ORCID number. The process is free and fast. The ORCID number is 16 digits, such as 0000-0002-2235-1499. Note that there are no spaces in the character string.
OSTI has modified the E-Link processing system and Announcement Notices (AN) to allow DOE sites to include researchers' ORCIDs in their submitted records. The ORCID number will become part of the author information available to users for search and retrieval in DOE databases such as OSTI.GOV. The number will also travel with the author's name to products managed by OSTI such as Science.gov and World Wide Science.org.
If you are a grantee, you may include your ORCID number as you fill out AN 241.3. The author section of the Announcement Notice asks for your last name, your first name, and your middle name or initial. Then, add your email address, your ORCID number, and your affiliation in the remaining author fields. If the ORCID number you enter is not in the correct format (0000-0000-0000-0000), the Announcement Notice will not allow you to use the "Submit" button. You will receive an error message instead so that you can re-enter the number correctly.
If you are a DOE employee or contractor at a DOE site or Office, you should ensure that your ORCID number is given to the STI Manager or Technical Information Officer for your organization. He or she will put it into the site database that provides records to OSTI. That will allow your site to include your ORCID number whenever it submits to OSTI any scientific and technical information which you have authored or co-authored.
For questions about ORCID numbers and how they are handled at OSTI, contact STIP@osti.gov.
How long will OSTI keep my STI record?
Full text of STI records submitted to OSTI are kept as permanent records. OSTI then holds responsibility for the record per governmental and NARA laws, regulations, and guidelines. Please note that if a submitter provides only metadata and URLs to full text, the submitter remains the record holder, not OSTI.
I found a box of DOE funded STI full-text documents, should I send to OSTI?
Often over the years, metadata only was sent to OSTI, so the OSTI Team is happy to work with you and confirm next steps for the STI. Please contact yourSTIP Liaisonwho will begin the process with OSTI Records Management.
How does OSTI handle FOIA requests for records?
OSTI regularly receives FOIA requests for STI documents. Please refer to OSTI's Freedom of Informaton Act (FOIA) page for further information and to contact OSTIs FOIA Officer with any particular questions.
How does OSTI protect limited records?
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) metadata and full text submitted to OSTI is only searchable through Science Research Connection (SRC), which is only accessible by approved DOE employees and contractors. In SRC, a request to view the full text can be submitted for approval and the document will be made accessible through SRC, to the requester only, when a valid need-to-know is submitted and all access requirements are met.