There are two requests from the US White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) for information about public access to publicly funded research. From the Nov.4, 2011 posting by David Bruggeman on his Pasco Phronesis blog,

In today’s Federal Register there are two requests for comment on the topic of public access to federally funded research.  They come from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).  One focuses on the digital data produced by that research, the other concerns the publications that result from this research.  … part of the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act.  The report is focused on determining standards and policies to help ensure long-term preservation and access to digital data and research publications produced from federally funded research.

So one request for information (RFI) is about open access to scientific data and the other is about open access to published research. The RFI for open access to scientific data is more detailed. Some 13 questions are asked, responders may choose to address their own open data access issues rather answering the questions. The questions are  split into two categories: (1) Preservation, Discoverability, and (2) Access and Standards for Interoperability, Re-Use and Re-Purposing. The deadline for responses on this request is January 12, 2012.

The RFI for public access to peer-reviewed, publicly funded research in scholarly publications is less detailed with eight questions being asked.  There’s this one for example,

(1) Are there steps that agencies could take to grow existing and new markets related to the access and analysis of peer-reviewed publications that result from federally funded scientific research? How can policies for archiving publications and making them publically accessible be used to grow the economy and improve the productivity of the scientific enterprise? What are the relative costs and benefits of such policies? What type of access to these publications is required to maximize U.S. economic growth and improve the productivity of the American scientific enterprise?

For this RFI, respondents need to meet a January 2, 2012 deadline.

Both of the RFIs ask questions about how open access can grow the economy. Although I didn’t see any reference to the economy when I was checking out a Canadian government pilot project ( Open Data Pilot Project) I expect we are just as interested in possible economic benefits as our US neighbour. (I mentioned the Canadian project in my March 13, 2011 posting.)