The Kitware Blog just pointed me to a pair of important RFI’s posted on the Science & Technology Policy Office’s website, both focused on Open and Public Access to data.
The first is focused on long-term broad public access to digital data resulting from federally funded work, with a deadline of January 12th. The second is similar, but focuses on access to scholarly publications based on such federally funded research. The first is important, but I think the second is even more so. Far too often scientific publications get locked up inside organizations like ACM and IEEE, requiring the public to then go back and buy them. Effectively, interested citizens wind up paying twice (once via Taxes, and again via the Organization).
So go hit the links and submit your input on how this should be handled!
The Kitware Blog – Open Access and Open Data for Federally Funded Scientific Research.
