Brian A. Hitson has been named Director of the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), a DOE corporate function that is managed by the Office of Science.
OSTI, based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, fulfills agency-wide statutory responsibilities to collect, preserve, and disseminate scientific and technical information emanating from DOE research and development activities. The OSTI mission is to advance science and sustain technological creativity by making R&D findings available and useful to DOE researchers and the public.
“OSTI most recently led the development of the Department’s plan to provide public access to scholarly publications and maintains a massive collection of DOE R&D results going back to the Manhattan Project,” said Dr. Jeffrey Salmon, Deputy Director of the Office of Science for Resource Management, in announcing Hitson’s appointment. “Brian has led the implementation of the DOE public access plan for scholarly publications, the first such plan to have been approved by the White House, and he personally forged cooperative working relationships on public access with federal research agencies, the publishing community, and other key stakeholders.”
Mr. Hitson joined OSTI in 1988 and led a range of programmatic and administrative activities, including strategic planning, budget formulation and execution, information product development, and cost-reimbursable project management. Appointed Associate Director for Administration and Information Services in 1999, he developed and implemented a number of strategic initiatives and managed line responsibilities in international information exchange programs, administrative and financial management, classified and sensitive information programs, and the digitization and preservation of a 1.2 million scientific document repository. He has been serving as Acting Director of OSTI since January 2014.
Mr. Hitson co-authored the 2014 DOE Public Access Plan, developing a strategy for implementing public access to the scholarly publications resulting from DOE’s R&D efforts, and, along with DOE, Office of Science, and OSTI colleagues, he led the August 2014 launch of the DOE Public Access Gateway for Energy and Science, or DOE PAGESBeta. In managing OSTI's international activities, Mr. Hitson played a key role in the development of WorldWideScience.org and in the establishment of the WorldWideScience Alliance in 2008. He is the U.S. representative to the IAEA's International Nuclear Information System (INIS) and chairs the technical activities committee of the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI).
Mr. Hitson has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and a Master's in Business Administration, both from the University of Tennessee, and is a 2011 graduate of the Federal Executive Institute's Leadership for a Democratic Society program. He and his wife Mary Helen have two daughters and reside in Clinton, Tennessee.
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.
The U.S. Department of Energy is introducing new measures to increase access to scholarly publications and digital data resulting from Department-funded research.
The Energy Department has launched the Public Access Gateway for Energy and Science –PAGES – a web-based portal that will provide free public access to accepted peer-reviewed manuscripts or published scientific journal articles within 12 months of publication.
“Increasing access to the results of research funded by the Department of Energy will enable researchers and entrepreneurs to capitalize on our substantial research and development investments,” said Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. “These new policies set the stage for increased innovation, commercial opportunities, and accelerated scientific breakthroughs.”
As it grows in content, PAGES will include access to DOE-funded authors’ accepted manuscripts hosted primarily by the Energy Department’s National Labs and grantee institutions, in addition to the public access offerings of publishers. For publisher-hosted content, the Department is collaborating with the publisher consortium CHORUS -- the Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States.
PAGES contains an initial collection of accepted manuscripts and journal articles as a demonstration of its functionality and eventual expanded content. Additional metadata and links to articles and accepted manuscripts will be added as they are submitted, with anticipated growth of 20,000 to 30,000 articles and manuscripts annually.
Read More from the U.S. Department of Energy News Release.
New Look Reflects Focus on Serving DOE R&D Interests
The website of the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) has a new look.
OSTI has re-designed its home page to reflect a streamlined focus on its core mission: to collect, preserve and disseminate scientific and technical information (STI) emanating from DOE research and development (R&D) activities.
The refreshed OSTI home page makes it easier for visitors to find DOE STI as well as other related science resources from across the federal government and around the world. OSTI works to extend the reach and impact of DOE research results and to bring the world’s research to DOE.
Prominently positioned at the top of the new home page is a search box for DOE R&D results that provides one-step access to OSTI’s flagship DOE STI product, SciTech Connect.
The home page also includes a carousel of OSTI’s streamlined product portfolio, slides highlighting OSTI news and blogs, and the OSTI Catalogue of Collections, which lists and describes OSTI’s STI offerings.
Featured in the carousel are links to OSTI’s principal DOE STI resources, including SciTech Connect, DOE Data Explorer, ScienceCinema, DOepatents, E-Print Network and DOE R&D Accomplishments. The carousel also provides ready access to OSTI’s three federated search products: the National Library of EnergyBeta, Science.gov and WorldWideScience.org.
The re-designed home page also includes an expandable footer that highlights the DOE Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP). Central to OSTI’s operations, STIP is an OSTI-led collaboration of STI managers and technical information officers from across the DOE complex responsible for identifying, collecting, preserving and making accessible the results of DOE-funded R&D. The footer also includes a handy index of all OSTI’s science resources and information about OSTI.
OSTI re-designed its home page to make it easier for users to seek and find DOE STI. Please let us know what you think: Feedback/Contact US.
In January 1999, a database of electronic documents containing U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/predecessor accomplishments was created. It was launched with the goal of drawing visible recognition to outcomes of past DOE/predecessor research and development that:
- have had significant economic impact,
- have improved people's lives, or
- have been widely recognized as remarkable advances in science.
The first two DOE R&D Accomplishments Feature pages were posted in February 2000. The subjects were the 1958 video game created by a Brookhaven scientist and the Information Superhighway reflecting Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's contribution to the Internet. Since then the DOE R&D Accomplishments website has posted Feature pages about 91 Nobel Laureates and some recent Enrico Fermi Award winners.
DOE R&D Accomplishments also provides interesting insights and detailed information about Nobel Laureates that range from former DOE Secretary Steven Chu to Enrico Fermi and Saul Perlmutter. In addition to scientists, important key topics such as Thin-Film Lithium Batteries, Cancer Therapy and Climate Change have also been highlighted. Another helpful segment on the website is called "Snapshots." This is where you can find articles and related documents on subjects such as Neutrinos; Life: Babies and Archea; and WWII the Manhattan Project.
OSTI celebrates this unique, first-rate website that duly recognizes DOE associated research, scientists and discoveries. Cheers to 15 years of Excellence!
