Participants: Dennis Gound (ORNL Site Ofc), Mary Hale (ANL), Theresa Connaughton (LANL), Ceil O’Brian (PPPL), Kim Kindrew (JLAB), Valerie Gaines (ANL), Pam Edwards (HNF), Mary Petersen (BNL), Stacy Joiner (AMES), Debbie Caver (SRO), Nancy Doran (PNNL), Nicole Carson (S-N), Danielle Pollack (SNL), Mona Higgins (NSTec), Kathy Macal (ANL), Donna Lawson (Y-12), Dave Hamrin (ORNL), Yvette Woell (ANL), Sharon Jordan (OSTI), Judy Gilmore (OSTI), Jannean Elliott (OSTI), Patty Simmons (OSTI), David Bellis (OSTI), Tammy Spencer (OSTI), and Kathy Waldrop (OSTI)
Agenda
STI Order Revision (Sharon Jordan) - The draft Order revision was provided today for STIP review and comment. The revisions made since April's version include points discussed at the 2009 STIP Working Meeting, comments from the May teleconference with Technical Information Officers (TIOs), recommendations resulting from the Directives Review Board and guidance from the HQ Directives staff. HQ guidance primarily affected the Requirements section, which applies to "All DOE Elements" and Responsibilities section. For example, if a Requirement applies to a specific DOE office, then it is more appropriate for the Responsibilities section and was moved there. Also, the word "must" replaced the word "will" in the Requirements. Attachments pertaining to Announcement Notices and STI Types were added to clarify existing requirements and the TIOs are called out in "Responsibilities" section, per Directives guidance. References to the DOE G 241.1-1A, STI Management Guide , have been changed to the "STI Handbook," as a result of discussions with the Directives Office, which has recommended that Guides be removed from the Directives system since they are nonmandatory practices and can be replaced by instructions or other web-posted documentation that does not require directives processing. OSTI will follow the recommendation and is already working with the Guide Revision Working Group to move in this direction. Feedback regarding the Order revision should be directed to Sharon by August 19, so that the draft Order can be submitted thru the Office of Science for final approval before entering the Directives process and ultimately RevCom.
STI Handbook (Kathy Waldrop) – Since the Guide as we know it will no longer exist pertinent information currently in the Guide will be used as a starting point to create an STI Handbook. The STI Handbook will be referenced in the DOE O 241.1B.
By moving from a Guide to a Handbook we are eliminating a more involved RevCom process when it comes to making changes to STI best practices and processes. The STIP Managers will still be asked to review and comment on new best practices and processes that will be included in the STI Handbook. These new practices and processes will be presented via discussions/presentations during STIP teleconferences, face-to-face STIP Working Meetings, or thru e-mail.
Currently, the DOE G 241.1-1A has 3 Parts. Much of the current Part 1 of the Guide will be eliminated. The appropriate remaining sections of Part 1 will be incorporated into the new STI Handbook. A Team of individuals from the NNSA Service Center, several major site/facility management contractors, and OSTI who started out as a team to revise the Guide are reviewing Part 2 of the Guide and incorporating it as appropriate into a new STI Handbook. Part 3 that addresses software will be worked on by a separate working group.
The working group is interested in arranging the information a bit differently so it will be more user friendly. By user friendly we are attempting to group things together so the user won’t necessarily have to read the entire document to find was is relevant to them. We also plan to turn the sections into “How To” sections.
The STI Handbook will be available thru the STIP Home Page.
New Media Working Group (Jannean Elliott) - The STIP New Media Working Group is now officially established. Miriam Blake (LANL) and Jannean Elliott wrote a charter that was distributed prior to the teleconference. During the call, Jannean announced that comments or questions on the charter would be welcome and then issued an invitation for membership. Those who wish to participate on this group should send email to Jannean (elliottj@osti.gov) and copy Miriam at meblake@lanl.gov. To quote from the charter:
The goal of the STIP NMWG is to ensure that new formats of scientific and technical information (STI) can be incorporated into DOE’s STIP procedures, intake systems and processing, output databases, and all documents, STIP training, and related responsibilities. Specifically, the NMWG will develop a STIP strategy, plan, and timeframe for routing non-text STI (referred to collectively as ‘new media”) through the STI processes at the labs, generating metadata with links to the STI new media products hosted at the labs, and submitting the metadata records to OSTI via current submission mechanisms. OSTI will then ensure that the E-Link records for new media are retrievable from the appropriate DOE databases.
OSTI Re-Review and PPII Procedures (Sharon Jordan/Kathy Waldrop) - As agreed during the 2009 STIP Working Meeting, OSTI provided information this week via a memorandum and attachment. The memo details OSTI’s in-house review process of older STI documents before they are digitized and linked to metadata. To facilitate OSTI procedures to validate that a document is "publicly web accessible," OSTI requested each site to provide at least one site URL OSTI can look to find where they are making their documents available to the public (e.g., site’s technical library if this is where an electronic centralized source of STI at a site; no sites behind firewalls). OSTI needs this info by August 21. Reply even if your harvesting site is the relevant URL. Protected PII procedures including details about the OSTI algorithm were also included with what was sent out to STIP Managers.
Journal Article Questions (Sharon Jordan) - As discussed in April, many issues remain with journal articles. According to the DOE General Counsel, when the DOE copyright transfer statement is used, the government can offer a copy of the journal article. However, because the issues are substantial and often controversial, OSTI is still trying to formulate our best practices. In reviewing a sampling of journal article product types submitted to OSTI, there is a wide array of practices evident regarding full-text attachments. Some submissions are for JA preprints; however, these are without the journal information of where the article was sent. Other JA items have full text which does not appear to have ever been published, thus those may more accurately be called reports. We are also getting copyrighted journal articles without access limitations. As shared at STIP, OSTI is considering publishing journal article submissions only in SRC for DOE and DOE contractor access until a Federal or DOE policy is adopted. Sites are requested to summarize their journal article practices and send them to Sharon as soon as possible so a determination of how we need to move forward can be reached.
2010 STIP Working Meeting (Kathy Waldrop) – A location for the 2010 STIP Working Meeting has been decided. The meeting will be held the week of April 19, in downtown Denver at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. There are airport shuttles that run between the airport and downtown Denver hotels. Additional details regarding the meeting will be provided closer to time for the meeting.
STI Paper Developed by CENDI (Sharon Jordan) - Another paper sent out to the STIP Managers before the call an as information item was an "STI White Paper," which was created by the CENDI Policy Working Group as a means of documenting and sharing with new administration or other stakeholders the various STI issues of mutual interest across federal science agencies.
Controlled Unclassified Information (Sharon Jordan) - Another topic that the CENDI policy group is staying abreast of is how the CUI policy implementation is being viewed by various agencies. As information develops, we will share it with STIP.
OSTP RFI on Public Access (Sharon Jordan) - OSTP (the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy) has been holding round table discussions on expanding public access to the published results of Federal S&T research investments. It was recently learned that OSTP intends to issue a Request for Information in the coming weeks. Once announced, we will pass this on.