STI PRODUCT TYPE FACTSHEET FOR DOE LABORATORY RESEARCHERS:

Scientific Datasets

ABOUT STI

In the course of performing research and development (R&D) and other scientific and technological work, researchers funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) produce scientific and technical information (STI) to document and disseminate their findings.

STI includes products such as journal articles, technical reports, conference presentations, books, and more. Through the Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP), the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) collaborates with people across the DOE complex, including Headquarters programs, field offices, national laboratories, and other facilities. The STIP partnership ensures that the results of DOE‐ funded work are identified, disseminated, and preserved. Thus, OSTI collects STI produced across the DOE laboratory and facility complex as well as from financial assistance recipients.

DEFINITION

Scientific datasets are data derived during research and development (R&D) or other scientific and technical work. Datasets may consist of numerical data, simulations from computer models, figures, tables, data plots, GIS data supporting interactive applications, genomic data, or other forms of non‐textual data which are a basic component of research results. Often these datasets are referenced in publications and in some cases, are made available as supplemental information. To announce datasets through the OSTI STI process, the scientific research data must be posted at a DOE site, DOE Data Center, or other publicly accessible location such as an open repository. The URL (and DOI, if available prior to submission) must be included in the metadata record. This link will take the user to a landing page which describes the dataset with useful metadata and information on how to access the data. Datasets cannot be uploaded or stored at OSTI.

SUBMISSIONS

Each DOE laboratory has a site program to manage scientific and technical information produced under the contract and to make it available to DOE’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information. Each site’s STI Manager is involved in the process; for more information, see the listing of STI Managers at https://www.osti.gov/stip/about/stip-community#STIManagers.

Staff will use the STI Manager's E‐Link account to submit the metadata to OSTI. Data Centers, repositories, or projects needing to submit large volumes of data with high frequency may work directly with OSTI to create an E-Link account and automate their submissions using an Application Programming Interface (API). OSTI provides the service of assigning a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and registering it with DataCite if a DOI is not already assigned. See DOE Data ID Service (https://www.osti.gov/pids/doi-services/doe-data-id-service) for full details. Datasets cannot be uploaded or stored at OSTI.

STI AVAILABILITY

OSTI.GOV is the primary search tool for DOE science, technology, and engineering research and development results and the organizational hub for information about the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information. Launched in 2018, it consolidates OSTI’s home page and the previous search tool SciTech Connect. OSTI.GOV makes discoverable over 70 years of research results from DOE and its predecessor agencies.

Research results include journal articles/accepted manuscripts and related metadata; technical reports; scientific research datasets and collections; scientific software; patents; conference and workshop papers; books and theses; and multimedia. OSTI.GOV provides access to this DOE STI by offering numerous easy‐to‐use search capabilities and customization options; and for the DOE community, additional citation information is available to help researchers evaluate article impact and find related research.

DOE Data Explorer (DDE) (http://www.osti.gov/dataexplorer) is a search tool to help find DOE‐funded, publicly available, scientific data submitted by data centers, repositories, and other organizations within the department. DDE includes data Project, data Collection, and individual Dataset records. Use the search functionalities to discover publicly available, DOE‐funded data resources.

OSTI.GOV and DOE Data Explorer are included in the Federal science portal Science.gov. Hosted by OSTI, Science.gov offers free access to research and development (R&D) results and scientific and technical information from more than 60 databases from scientific organizations across 13 federal agencies.

OSTI also works in close collaboration with Google and others, using Sitemap Protocols and other information industry standards to facilitate the discovery of DOE STI through widely used search engines.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/CONTACTS

The STIP website at https://www.osti.gov/stip/

OSTI staff will respond to questions/suggestions sent to stip@osti.gov

Data related questions should be directed to DOEDataID@osti.gov

Questions related to E‐Link may also be sent to elink_Helpdesk@osti.gov