STIP Managers Teleconference August 15, 2001

Draft IG Report on Peer-Reviewed Journal Literature - Sharon Jordan
The draft subject report was received by OSTI and other Office of Science (SC) offices in late June for comment. The IG visited several DOE light source facilities to determine if the STI generated by the light source users was made available to OSTI for public access. Journal articles are the primary form of STI generated by light source users. DOE's comments were signed off and provided to the IG last week. The Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) within SC agreed that, if journal citation information is captured by the light sources, it should be made available to OSTI. This recommendation will probably result in follow-up action. PNNL commented they are going through a similar IG investigation, and it appears that the IG is unfamiliar with STI procedures. One suggestion was to reference the Order and Guide in the audit report. The requirements for non-DOE users of light sources are not clear regarding publications. POST NOTE: The audit report was signed out by the IG on Aug. 31 and should soon be available on at http://www.ig.doe.gov/new.htm.

Fall STIP Meeting - Susan Tackett
November dates were discussed; Chicago and Denver are the two sites being considered (having willing hosts and being travel hubs). Chicago (Argonne) seems to have greater availability of meeting space. Argonne reported, however, that no rooms are available on the 6th but are on November 7th and 8th. Argonne has an on-site hotel with low rates, but the conference room is not in the hotel. Argonne is 20-25 minutes from either O'Hare or Midway airports; each has excellent limousine service.

NREL will put a hold on their meeting space pending a decision. Both sites are similar distances from the airports. OSTI requested anyone with a preference to cast a vote. POST NOTE: Chicago was selected as the meeting location, with STI management meeting to be held November 7-8. More information will be available soon.

"Over the last few days, there have been some concerns raised in the LOWG community about sending journal article announcement records and full text journal articles to OSTI for inclusion in our databases. If I can summarize the concern, it is that journal publishers might perceive copyright infringement if the articles are put into OSTI databases. To be sure that our position on this issue is sound, we asked DOE General Counsel for advice. They have agreed that it is appropriate for DOE and DOE Contractor operated facilities to provide to OSTI journal citations and copies of journal articles that have been submitted to publishers and approved for publication or already published. The journal copyright protects only the journal's formatting. DOE entities are free to send the article as it was produced at government expense, but should not send a copy formatted by the journal. OSTI is free to further disseminate such items without concerns about infringing on intellectual property rights. The following language was recently approved for the revised Guide for managing scientific and technical information, DOE G 241.1-1, which we hope will be issued soon. " 'For scientific and technical articles submitted to and published in journals, symposia, proceedings, or similar works, the contractor can assert copyright without prior permission of DOE, but the government is granted a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable world-wide license to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government (broad license). As specified in the M&O contract, when claim to copyright is made and when the article is submitted for publication, the contractor should affix the appropriate copyright notice reflecting the Government's rights. For OSTI purposes, it is preferable for the original unpublished form of the text to be submitted to OSTI which can be used in full-text without restrictions, rather than a journal "reprint" (which is usually copyrighted by the publisher and may be restricted). If a journal reprint is submitted to OSTI and it is copyrighted by the publisher, the submitter should mark DOE F 241.1 indicating that the journal article type is an Announcement citation only. Due to the access limitations being "copyrighted" with restrictions specified, OSTI does not process or make the reprint itself available, but will announce it and cite availability from the publisher.' " Similar guidance had also been provided previously to E-Link users to help in filling out the DOE F 241.1 properly related to copyright.

POST NOTE: Procedures are under going change with the Directives Office at HQ, thus the Guide has yet to be issued. The final version as submitted to HQ for processing is available on the STIP Home Page at http://www.osti.gov/stip/gidrev01c(8-01).pdf.

Energy Citations Database - Sharon Jordan
A new Web-based service will be available soon which includes bibliographic records for STI dating from 1948 to the present (with links to electronic full text when available) for DOE and predecessor agencies, AEC and ERDA. This database will be available in two versions, public and DOE (similar to Information Bridge). DOE and DOE contractors will want to use the DOE version as it contains items acquired through international agreements which cannot be included in the public version because of agreement restrictions. It will contain all the non-sensitive (unlimited distribution) bibliographic information that OSTI has available within its walls. INFO-M will announce the availability soon. NOTE: Access will NOT require a password.

Miscellaneous - All
OSTI issued the most recent quarterly issue of ePhysSci mid-July, and several sites had provided information. The newsletter goes to about 6000 addressees, including DOE, universities, libraries, and others. Sites are encouraged to submit items to OSTI as this is a good way to get news out about laboratory accomplishments, new services, etc. Past issues are archived at http://www.osti.gov/ephyscinews/. OSTI clarified that a separate database is being developed to provide DOE access to the limited-distribution STI citations, which are not included in Energy Citations Database. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act was discussed. The Act states that federally funded Web sites have to be accessible to persons with disabilities. NREL has done some work with this; PNNL is also doing some work. In short, the web page code has to be "convertible" by various programs that interpret the HTML so users with disabilities can more easily use the Web pages. Some software tools (e.g., "Bobby" ) help check web sites for Section 508 compliance and identify changes needed. OSTI uses Bobby for its web pages and products.

Next call will be October 10; news about fall meeting will be sent out before then.

EXCERPT FROM HR 2458 Section 208. Online Access to Federally Funded Research and Development

(a) Definitions--In this section the term--
(1) "essential information" shall include--
(A) information identifying any person performing research and development under an agreement and the agency providing the funding,
(B) an abstract describing the research
(C) references to published results;
(e) Development and Maintenance of Database and Website
(1) IN GENERAL--
(A)The agency or agencies determined under subsection (b)(2)
[note: DOE is named], ...shall develop--
(I) a database ...
(ii) a centralized, searchable website for the electronic dissemination of information reported under this section, with respect to information made available to the public ....
(2) LINKS--Where the results of federally funded research have been published, the website shall contain links to the servers of the publishers if possible. The website may include links to other relevant websites containing information about the research.
(3) OTHER RESEARCH--The website may include information about published research not funded by the Federal Government, and links to the servers of the publishers.