For University of Wisconsin researchers who rely on Department of Energy federal grants, the other shoe has dropped. To be precise, the DoE’s “shoe” or plan to increase access to the works and data of its federally-funded investigators is one of approximately thirteen plans many federal agencies will likely be announcing in the next several weeks. In February 2013, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a memo (known as the OSTP memo) that required all agencies that fund over $100 million in research annually to create a plan to allow greater public access to its’ researchers’ work and data after a 12 month embargo period. The Washington Post’s recent article on the announcement indicates that this particular plan is not without its detractors.
RDS will be covering the release of all OSTP Memo plans as they are announced.