AIP Publishing, a division of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), has reviewed the OSTP directive released on February 22, 2013 by the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), John Holdren. The directive outlines guidelines for federal agencies to develop plans to support increased public access to the results of federally-funded scientific research.
The directive is stated to align with the values of scholarly publishers in ensuring that the public and the entire research community have the widest possible access to the best scientific information, while recognizing the need for sustainable scholarly publishing business models. OSTP is commended for its emphasis on flexibility and partnerships.
Since the passage of America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, AIP Publishing, along with other publishers, has collaborated with agencies, such as the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, to develop pilot projects that will tag research manuscripts with funding information and link digital data sets to publications. These pilot projects will continue as models of the public/private partnerships that the OSTP directive encourages.
AIP Publishing commends OSTP's recognition of the important role that scholarly publishers play in the advancement of scholarship: 'publishers provide valuable services, including peer-review that are essential for ensuring the high quality and integrity of many scholarly publications. It is critical that these services continue to be made available.' The scholarly publishing industry possesses the expertise and capabilities to drive innovation in content delivery, discovery and archiving, it says.
AIP Publishing notes that the OSTP memorandum's guidelines are flexible and do not mandate a single solution or model. The OSTP directive suggests a 12-month post-publication embargo as a guideline, but gives agencies the flexibility to work with publishers to modify embargo periods according to differences among fields and journal markets.
