Executive Summary – USDOT Public Access Plan
Executive Summary of USDOT Public Access Plan.pdfWhite House Directive Specifics
The White House Office of Science & Technology Policy’s (OSTP’s) Feb. 22, 2013 memorandum Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research (https://www.whitehouse.gov) describes new requirements for providing public access to federally funded scientific research publications and digital data sets. OSTP directed all Executive Departments with greater than $100 million in yearly research and development expenditures to prepare a plan for improving the public’s access to the results of federally funded research. The requirements of each plan apply to researchers both within the Federal Government (intramural) and in organizations funded by the Federal Government (extramural).
White House Required Public Access Plan Components
Each sponsoring agency’s plan must contain:
The USDOT Response
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT’s) public access plan is focused on three areas:
Publications: Final manuscripts accepted for publication should be submitted to the National
Transportation Library (NTL), which has a MAP-21 (49 USC 6304) mandate to be the central repository for USDOT research and technical reports and a clearinghouse for Government transportation data.
Data: Intramural researchers will follow USDOT’s existing Data Release Policy and both intramural and extramural researchers will have to submit a data management plan for approval. The plan will ensure metadata describing research digital data sets and the terms of access and use are made accessible via the DOT Public Data Listing required under OMB Circular M-13-13.
Projects: The plan proposes a simple Research Project Record process using a persistent identifier or similar method for identifying and connecting publications and data sets, enabling NTL to locate data related to publication to refer requestors/researchers, and serve as compliance and reporting mechanism via NTL Digital Repository.
Scope
Information Not Covered by These Requirements
Public access to publications and data must honor and protect:
What Every Extramural Researcher Needs to Know
If you apply for research funds from the USDOT under contract, grant, or cooperative agreement, you will be required to submit a data management plan for approval. Your plan must identify a repository for your data that is accessible by NTL; your metadata will be included in DOT Enterprise Data Inventory.
Elements of the data management plans (DMPs) include:
All final peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication; intramural, technical, or final reports; and/or scientific research project written deliverables (e.g., technical/final reports) that you produce under a DOT contract or grant must be submitted to NTL under a non-exclusive license agreement. These publications will be made publicly available after an embargo period of 12 months following publication.
Updated 04:01 PM EST, December 07, 2015