From: sspilka <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2015 09:09:33 -0500

Following our recent news about agreements with the NSF and USGS, we
are excited to share the following joint announcement, which is going
out this morning.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best,
Susan
Susan Spilka
[log in to unmask]
www.chorusaccess.org


For immediate release: Dec. 3, 2015

NIST and CHORUS Launch Pilot Project to Support NIST’s Public Access Plan

GAITHERSBURG, Md.—The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) and CHORUS, a nonprofit organization
that advances public access to content reporting on funded research,
have launched a pilot project to help improve access to the results of
NIST-funded research.

Researchers at NIST generate data and author publications that lead to
advances in fields as diverse as materials science, medical
diagnostics, forensic science, cybersecurity and firefighting. NIST
research results also help U.S. industries improve their products,
comply with regulations and compete internationally.

In April 2015, NIST issued a plan to manage public access to content
and data resulting from the research it funds. Under the plan, journal
articles that currently are available through the publishers’ websites
will now also be available at the National Institutes of Health PubMed
Central.

Through NIST’s public access initiative, articles that report on
research conducted at or sponsored by NIST will be made publicly
available through PubMed Central. CHORUS will point to the published
“authoritative” article on official journal sites where readers will
find research in context with additional tools and information
provided by a journal. NIST also plans to use metrics from CHORUS and
PubMed Central to better measure readership of its scholarly and
technical publications. The two services will be separate, but
complementary.

“This pilot project will allow NIST to work with CHORUS and its
publishing industry members as the scientific community responds to
federal directives that require that the results of federally funded
research be made more accessible,” said Richard Cavanagh, NIST’s
acting associate director for laboratory programs. “The infrastructure
CHORUS has built will support our ability to track papers authored by
NIST staff as well as by recipients of NIST funding.”

Through its online services and network of publishers, CHORUS will
make it easier for the public to find published articles reporting on
NIST-funded research and for NIST to track certain data about the
articles. CHORUS’ system is interoperable across a broad range of
funding agencies, publisher platforms and reuse licenses. Its
distributed access approach maximizes identification, discovery,
access, monitoring and preservation of publicly accessible content
reporting on funded research.

“The CHORUS and NIST pilot agreement is an important milestone on the
road to broad-based, sustainable public access,” said Howard Ratner,
executive director of CHORUS. “We are excited to have CHORUS support
NIST’s public access plan implementation. Our service will complement
NIST’s other partners to yield benefits for the public and balance the
needs of all involved in scholarly communications.”

The pilot’s initial objectives include:

•    Enhancing CHORUS’ NIST Dashboard, which provides information
about the identity, public accessibility and preservation of articles
reporting on NIST-funded research;
•    Sharing web-usage data from CHORUS publisher member sites and the
proposed NIST-branded PubMed Central (PMC) archive;
•    Developing a CHORUS-hosted, NIST-branded public access search
portal linking to publicly accessible articles on publisher websites.

The agreement will run through the end of December 2016 and will help
inform future potential collaborations between NIST and CHORUS.

About:
CHORUS advances sustainable, cost-effective public access to articles
reporting on funded research in ways that benefit all in the scholarly
communications community. A not-for-profit membership organization,
CHORUS leverages existing infrastructure, promotes collaboration,
sparks innovation, and broadens the dialogue among publishers,
funders, service providers, researchers and other stakeholders.

As a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, NIST
promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing
measurement science, standards and technology in ways that enhance
economic security and improve our quality of life. To learn more about
NIST, visit www.nist.gov.

NIST Contact: Jennifer Huergo, 301-975-6343
CHORUS contact: Susan Spilka, 516-315-7721