Understanding USGS Public Access Plan: Free Access to Journal Articles and USGS Data

1. Fundamental Science Practices (FSP)of the U.S. Geological Survey Understanding the USGS Public Access Plan A mechanism to provide free public access to your journal articles and USGS funded data allowing USGS to comply with OSTP1 and OMB2 requirements. 1 - Office of Science, Technology and Policy, 2 – Office of Management and Budget U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey

2. What you will learn in this training module • What the USGS Public Access Plan is. • What the plan requires. • How USGS provides free public access to journal articles. • Requirements for providing free public access to your data. • Options for providing data access.

3. What is the USGS Public Access Plan? The plan outlines a framework for activities to: • increase free public access to scholarly publications and; • provide digital scientific data resulting from research funded by the USGS.

4. What the plan requires • Journal articles (referred to as scholarly publications by OSTP) authored or coauthored by USGS authors or funded by the USGS (external grants) will be made available free to the public 12 months after publication. • USGS funded digital data approved for release must be available free to the public. • Refer to specifics of the data release process here: https://www2.usgs.gov/fsp/training/scientific_data/ • USGS funded digital data used to support conclusions in our information products must be released no later than the time of publication of the associated information product.

5. How does free public access to journal articles work? Document Type • After Bureau Approval the JA moves onto the dissemination routing step in the USGS Information Product Data System (IPDS). • After the JA is published the USGS author enters the digital object identifier (DOI) into the “Bibliodata tab” in IPDS, adds the accepted manuscript to the IPDS documents, and then validates the deissemination routing step in IPDS. • Note: If there is no accepted manuscript added to IPDS the process stops and the ability for USGS to provide free public access for this manuscript is compromised. • An automated process notifies the USGS Publications Warehouse (PW) of the existence of the JA and the 12-month countdown begins. Dissemination Step

6. How does free public access to journal articles work? continued • Using various web applications and services tied back to the CrossRef DOI the PW is notified at the end of the 12 month embargo period. • PW checks to determine if the journal has made the JA available free to the public. • If not a process is initiated to create and provide the public a free XML version of the JA based on the accepted manuscript extracted from IPDS. • This XML version is accessed from the PW. • This approach was modeled after the approach used by “PubMed”

7. How does free public access to data work? • Scientific data that are used to support the conclusions in scholarly publications must be made available free-of-charge for public access simultaneously with or prior to the release of an associated scholarly publication, • unless the agency determines that a demonstrated circumstance restricts the data from being made publicly available, • for example in cases where access must be restricted because of security, privacy, confidentiality, or other constraints.

8. Requirements for providing data access. • Final project scientific data funded by the USGS and approved for release must be made available free-of-charge at the end of the project, unless the agency determines that a demonstrated circumstance restricts the data from being made publicly available, • for example in cases where access must be restricted because of security, privacy, confidentiality, or other constraints. • “Final project data” means those data specifically approved for release using the USGS data release process. • It is the Science Center Director responsibility to determine what constitutes final project data to be released.

9. Options for providing data access. • USGS scientific data approved for release are in most cases assigned a USGS digital object identifier. • Scientific data are approved for release in accordance with USGS Fundamental Science Practices requirements. • Scientific data are preserved as the authoritative version on or through an approved USGS server, application, or accepted digital repository.

10. https://www2.usgs.gov/fsp/training.asp.  https://www2.usgs.gov/fsp/training.asp.  FSP Training Resources Additional training materials associated with FSP are available as short modules addressing requirements for specific information product types, conditions, and responsibilities. These modules are available here: https://www2.usgs.gov/fsp/training.asp

11. Questions? Questions related to USGS Fundamental Science practices should be addressed first to your USGS Bureau Approving Official (BAO) or to the USGS Fundamental Science Practices Advisory Committee atGS_FSPAC@usgs.gov

12. Fundamental Science Practices of theU.S. Geological Survey Return to main training landing page by clicking here.