Category Archives: oa.government

The presidents of Canada’s federal research granting agencies announce a review of the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications | 4 July 2023

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“Canada’s federal research granting agencies – the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (“the agencies”) – are announcing a review of the Tri-Agency Open Access (OA) Policy on Publications (“OA Policy”), with the goal of requiring that any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from agency-supported research be freely available, without subscription or fee, at the time of publication. The renewed OA Policy will be released by the end of 2025. The agencies are committed to increasing the dissemination of research results and accelerating knowledge mobilization by ensuring peer-reviewed articles resulting from agency-funded research are freely and immediately available….”

First Meeting of the G20-Chief Science Advisers Roundtable Held at Ramnagar, Uttarakhand | 29 MAR 2023

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“…Under the theme Synergizing Global Efforts to Expand the Access to Scholarly Scientific Knowledge, we discussed that the access should be free, immediate, and universal, high subscription and Article Processing Charges levied by journals must be reduced, the establishment of Interoperable inter-linking of national repositories with international repositories/ archives, and having Open Access mandate to make knowledge outputs of public-funded scientific research widely available.

The third theme was on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Science & Technology (S&T). The participating countries shared their work in advancing access to the under-represented, under-privileged, marginalized, minority as well as tribal/ native communities in the larger scientific enterprise. In the session, the Inclusion of Traditional Knowledge Systems (TKS) in formal system of knowledge through due scientific validation process, and Recognizing the potential of language diversity and addressing the bottlenecks in accessing scientific knowledge were also discussed. 

It was agreed upon that the scientific advisers play a critical role in shaping policy choices by providing evidence-driven science advice and that the in the spirit of cooperation and dialogue, it is the responsibility of chief science advisers to collaborate and engage in international dialogue to address transboundary issues affecting the entire scientific enterprise so that the science and technology can benefit all. The deliberations and engagement on the topics discussed today will continue until August 2023, when the next meeting is scheduled, in which a Science Policy Communiqué will be released….”

open.science.gov – Your Gateway to U.S. Federal Science

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“Open Science is the principle and practice of making research products and processes available to all, while respecting diverse cultures, maintaining security and privacy, and fostering collaborations, reproducibility, and equity. Federal agencies are celebrating 2023 as a Year of Open Science, a multi-agency initiative across the federal government to spark change and inspire open science engagement through events and activities that will advance adoption of open, equitable, and secure science….”

“…Science.gov is the U.S. contribution to WorldWideScience.org, which provides access to science information from more than 70 nations…”

Fifth U.S. Open Government National Action Plan | open.USA.gov

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“Broaden Public Access to Federally-Funded Research Findings and Data.

Many important scientific and technological discoveries, including those that have helped mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, have been supported by American tax dollars. Yet frequently, the results of such Federally-funded research are out of reach for many Americans, available only for a cost or with unnecessary delays. These barriers to accessing Federally-supported research deepen inequalities, as funding disadvantages faced by under-resourced institutions like minority-serving colleges and universities prevent communities from accessing the results of research that taxpayers have funded. To tackle these obstacles and unlock new possibilities for further innovation and participation in science, the Federal Government previously delivered guidance to agencies to develop plans for greater public access to taxpayer-funded research.

Looking forward, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking new steps to expand and accelerate access to publicly-funded research results by ensuring that publications and associated data resulting from Federally funded research are freely and publicly available without delay after publication. Making data underpinning research publications more readily available improves transparency into Federally-supported work, enabling others to replicate and build on research findings. Going forward, the Government commits to supporting access to Federally-funded science and data through several mechanisms, including through the National Science and Technology Council’s Subcommittee on Open Science; by permitting researchers to include publication and data sharing costs in their research budget proposals to Federal grant programs; by launching programs aimed at awarding more grants to early-stage researchers as well as encouraging a diverse pool of award applicants; and by exploring new incentive structures to recognize institutions and researchers who are supporting public access to data and research.”

White House Releases Fifth Open Government National Action Plan to Advance a More Inclusive, Responsive, and Accountable Government | OSTP | The White House

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“Today, the Biden-Harris Administration released the U.S. Government’s Fifth Open Government National Action Plan to advance a more inclusive, responsive, and accountable government. The plan includes commitments to increase the public’s access to data to better advance equity, engage the public in the regulatory process, make government records more accessible to the public, and improve the delivery of government services and benefits. The publication of this plan builds on months of engagement with the public, including six public engagement sessions with hundreds of participants, over 700 public comments, and consultations with a range of civil society organizations.”

Archiving official documents as an act of radical journalism – Columbia Journalism Review

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“Democracy’s Library, a new project of the Internet Archive that launched last month, has begun collecting the world’s government publications into a single, permanent, searchable online repository, so that everyone—journalists, authors, academics, and interested citizens—will always be able to find, read, and use them. It’s a very fundamental form of journalism….

The importance of distributing true copies of government records was formally recognized by the US Congress in 1813 with a resolution establishing what later became the Federal Depository Library Program, now a network of more than eleven hundred libraries maintaining collections of government records, including catalogues of government assistance, census information, economic indicators, the US Code and Government Manual, the Social Security Handbook, bibliographies, the daily Federal Register, and Ben’s Guide to US Government for Kids (“Let’s Go on a Learning Adventure!”).

 

But in recent years, enormous collections of these documents came to be gathered and sold or licensed to libraries through commercial databases. At the same time, digital repositories maintained by governments have aged and deteriorated. Standards are lacking, or absent altogether….”

Education Ministry To Implement ‘One Nation One Subscription’ For Open Access To Research Papers

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“The Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India will implement the ‘One Nation One Subscription’ (ONOS) initiative for open access to scientific research papers and journal publication in India from April 1, 2023. All the educational and research institutions, including universities, colleges, and research organisations, as well as each and every person in the nation, are expected to gain benefit from this initiative.

 

The core committee is taking into consideration 70 publishers’ resources for the first phase of ONOS based on the Planning and Execution Committee’s (PEC) recommendations.

A statement of the MoE reads:” The ONOS intends to sign national licenses with most of the prominent STEM publishers and database producers of the world whose contents are already being subscribed by various institutions of higher education and research organizations either directly or through Government-funded consortia”.

The ONOS is implemented for the government, government-funded academic and research and development institutions, research labs from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEiTY), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and other ministry or department funded institutions….”

Open Science in Africa: What policymakers should consider

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As Open Science (OS) is being promoted as the best avenue to share and drive scientific discoveries at much lower costs and in transparent and credible ways, it is imperative that African governments and institutions take advantage of the momentum and build research infrastructures that are responsive to this movement. This paper aims to provide useful insight into the importance and implementation of OS policy frameworks. The paper uses a systematic review approach to review existing literature and analyse global OS policy development documents. The approach includes a review of existing OS policy frameworks that can guide similar work by African governments and institutions. This critical review also makes recommendations on key issues that Africa should consider in the process of OS policy development. These approaches can be widely used as further foundations for future developments in OS practices on the continent.

Virtual Stakeholder Workshop to consult on the draft South African Open Science Policy – 22.02.22 – YouTube

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“The successful development of the South African Open Science Policy is contingent on broad-based consultations and inputs from stakeholders across the entire National System of Innovation. The Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), in partnership with the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and Universities South Africa (USAf), is hosting the online Stakeholder Workshop to facilitate this broad-based consultation….”

[2112.02471] Grappling with the Scale of Born-Digital Government Publications: Toward Pipelines for Processing and Searching Millions of PDFs

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Abstract:  Official government publications are key sources for understanding the history of societies. Web publishing has fundamentally changed the scale and processes by which governments produce and disseminate information. Significantly, a range of web archiving programs have captured massive troves of government publications. For example, hundreds of millions of unique U.S. Government documents posted to the web in PDF form have been archived by libraries to date. Yet, these PDFs remain largely unutilized and understudied in part due to the challenges surrounding the development of scalable pipelines for searching and analyzing them. This paper utilizes a Library of Congress dataset of 1,000 government PDFs in order to offer initial approaches for searching and analyzing these PDFs at scale. In addition to demonstrating the utility of PDF metadata, this paper offers computationally-efficient machine learning approaches to search and discovery that utilize the PDFs’ textual and visual features as well. We conclude by detailing how these methods can be operationalized at scale in order to support systems for navigating millions of PDFs.

 

[2112.02471] Grappling with the Scale of Born-Digital Government Publications: Toward Pipelines for Processing and Searching Millions of PDFs

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Abstract:  Official government publications are key sources for understanding the history of societies. Web publishing has fundamentally changed the scale and processes by which governments produce and disseminate information. Significantly, a range of web archiving programs have captured massive troves of government publications. For example, hundreds of millions of unique U.S. Government documents posted to the web in PDF form have been archived by libraries to date. Yet, these PDFs remain largely unutilized and understudied in part due to the challenges surrounding the development of scalable pipelines for searching and analyzing them. This paper utilizes a Library of Congress dataset of 1,000 government PDFs in order to offer initial approaches for searching and analyzing these PDFs at scale. In addition to demonstrating the utility of PDF metadata, this paper offers computationally-efficient machine learning approaches to search and discovery that utilize the PDFs’ textual and visual features as well. We conclude by detailing how these methods can be operationalized at scale in order to support systems for navigating millions of PDFs.

 

Proudly Serving: Default to open – Google Docs

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”

Overview

Openness is a mindset and culture. It creates opportunities for exponential government innovation. By embracing the values of collaboration, participation and transparency, government can instill trust and foster better and faster solutions to small and big problems.

The problem

Governments that isolate processes and decision-making from the public limit the opportunity to truly create government with, for and by the people. By taking an insular approach to service, we don’t leverage the collective wisdom and energy of the public. The opaqueness leads to ambivalence and mistrust.

The solution

A government culture of ‘open by default’ that publicly shares its information and processes and actively solicits feedback. By creating mechanisms that encourage the public to engage early and often, we develop opportunities for increased engagement in the context of trust and a sense of betterment for the entire community….”

Introducing IOI’s Research Fellows

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“With the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, we are excited to introduce IOI’s first Research Fellows: Anne Britton and Teri Wanderi. They’ll be working with us over the next few months to expand and enhance our research to support and sustain open infrastructure….”

Free for all, or free-for-all? A content analysis of Australian university open access policies | bioRxiv

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Abstract:  Recent research demonstrates that Australia lags in providing open access to research outputs. In Australia, while the two major research funding bodies require open access of outputs from projects they fund, these bodies only fund a small proportion of research conducted. The major source of research and experimental development funding in Australian higher education is general university, or institutional, funding, and such funds are not subject to national funder open access policies. Thus, institutional policies and other institutional supports for open access are important in understanding Australia’s OA position. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to understand the characteristics of Australian institutional open access policies and to explore the extent they represent a coherent and unified approach to delivering and promoting open access in Australia. Open access policies were located using a systematic web search approach and then their contents were analysed. Only half of Australian universities were found to have an open access policy. There was a wide variation in language used, expressed intent of the policy and expectations of researchers. Few policies mention monitoring or compliance and only three mention consequences for non-compliance. While it is understandable that institutions develop their own policies, when language is used which does not reflect national and international understandings, when requirements are not clear and with consequences, policies are unlikely to contribute to understanding of open access, to uptake of the policy, or to ease of transferring understanding and practices between institutions. A more unified approach to open access is recommended.