On October 28, 2024, DOE Deputy Secretary Turk approved DOE O 241.1C, Scientific and Technical Information Management.  To provide guidance to Departmental Elements and DOE Contractors that are responsible for implementing the requirements of DOE O 241.1C, this webpage was developed. The focus of this page is to highlight the new and enhanced requirements, and any key clarifications that have been established by the revised order.  

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) have also been posted on the DOE Directives website as part of DOE O 241.C.

New and Enhanced Requirements

Departmental Elements and DOE Contractors

The following requirements are new to DOE O 241.1C due to changes in specific laws, federal-wide guidance, and DOE policy affecting scientific and technical information (STI) management, and apply to all Departmental Elements that support research and development (R&D) activities as well as DOE Contractors. Below provides a summary of these changes, reference to the Order language (in quotes), and any applicable guidance issued by DOE and/or OSTI:

Public Access

As a result of federal-wide public access policy guidance issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), DOE updated its Public Access Plan, which addresses new and enhanced requirements for public access. These requirements have been formally established by DOE O 241.1C for Departmental Elements and DOE Contractors in the following three areas:

Publications

Federal agencies, including DOE, are now required to make agency funded peer-reviewed journal articles available at time of publication.

“Peer-reviewed scholarly publications must be made available without any embargo or delay after publication.”

For compliance with public access, requirements for accepted manuscripts of journal articles must be identified by DOE programs that initiate requisitions for financial assistance or authorize funding for contract supported R&D, e.g., for DOE funded work proposals. Major site laboratory contractors will identify requirements for those performing R&D per the Contractor Requirements Document (CRD) of the Order. Submission requirements for financial assistance can be found here and submission requirements for major site/laboratory contractors can be found here.

It is important to note that it is not necessary to publish DOE funded journal articles as open access (OA). Since the intellectual property provisions of DOE contracts and financial assistance (FA) awards include rights of DOE to use and publish data produced by the award or contract, pending any restrictions or limitations identified by the contract or award, DOE does not require OA for public access. While recipients and contractors hold title to their works, it will be important to instruct recipients of awards and contractors that any agreements made with publishers may not prohibit DOE’s rights to use the data produced under the award per the public access requirements identified in DOE O 241.1C.

Persistent Identifiers (PIDs)

Requirements for PIDs have been established for individuals and certain STI products.

Individuals

“DOE federal and contractor employees conducting R&D work must obtain a persistent identifier (PID) for themselves that meets the common/core standards specified in the NSPM-33 Implementation Guidance or successor guidance (e.g., ORCID iD). The PID must be used by these employees in published research outputs when available and be provided to OSTI with STI metadata records.”

STI

“A PID (e.g., digital object identifier [DOI]) must be associated with the following STI records:

1. Accepted Manuscripts/Journal Articles – If a PID is assigned by the publisher, it must be provided to OSTI with the metadata record.
2. Scientific Data that are publicly accessible (i.e., posted on a public website or repository) – If the data has a PID, it must be provided to OSTI with the metadata record. If a PID is not provided, OSTI will assign one.
3. Technical Reports with no distribution limitations – If the report has a PID, it must be provided to OSTI with the metadata record. If a PID is not provided, OSTI will assign one.
4. Scientific Software with no distribution limitations – If the software has a PID, it must be provided to OSTI with the metadata record. If a PID is not provided, OSTI will assign one.”

For more information on PIDs, please visit the PIDs policy page.

Data Management

DMPs and DMSPs

All R&D funded by DOE will require a data management plan (DMP) or data management and sharing plan (DMSP).

“R&D activities funded or supported by DOE must provide a Data Management Plan (DMP) or Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMSP) for scientific data generated by the award or any other authorized work (see Attachment 6).”

DOE provides guidance for data management on its DOE Requirements and Guidance for Digital Research Data Management webpage. Updates to address the DMSP requirements will be provided as new guidance is developed.

Scientific Data Submissions

Scientific data that is made publicly available as a result of an approved DMP or DMSP is required to be submitted to E-Link (only metadata about the scientific data is required, not the data itself).

“Scientific data that are shared publicly, as described in an approved DMSP, must be reported as STI to DOE (see Attachments 3 and 4) and through any other applicable reporting requirements.”

For information about scientific data submissions, please see here.

STI Training

To ensure the requirements for STI management are understood and followed, training is now required.

“All DOE federal and contractor employees who author, create, manage, or otherwise directly contribute to the production or review of STI, must complete training on appropriate STI management procedures and requirements within twelve months after the STI training becomes available and once every two years thereafter.”

“New DOE federal and contractor employees who author, create, manage, or otherwise directly contribute to the production or review of STI, including interns and those on short-term details and assignments, must complete training on appropriate STI management procedures and requirements upon initial employment (or within twelve months after the STI training becomes available) and once every two years thereafter. For short-term appointments, repeat training applies if appointments extend beyond two years.”

For more information, please visit the STI Training page.

DOE Contractors Only

Science and Technology (S&T) Risk Matrix

As a result of updates to the S&T Risk Matrix made by the Deputy Secretary in June 2023, requirements for National Laboratories to notify DOE program offices of achievements in restricted areas, as identified in the (S&T) Risk Matrix, prior to publication, have been established in DOE O 241.1C.

“Review processes must include appropriate review and approval steps for restricted Science and Technology topic areas as identified in the most recent version of the DOE Science and Technology (S&T) Risk Matrix. For completed research that is determined to be a Restricted S&T topic, notification to the DOE sponsoring program office and the sponsoring program office providing stewardship over the laboratory must occur prior to public release or publication.”

For additional guidance, see the DOE Office of Science (SC) Laboratory Policy Research Security webpage where a link with introductory information about the S&T Risk Matrix is provided.

Clarifications

Certain requirements were clarified or emphasized due to the importance of the requirement for fulfilling DOE’s STI mission. These requirements include:

R&D, Identification of STI, and DOE’s Rights

Departmental Elements and Contractors must identify STI for R&D that is funded by DOE and DOE must have adequate rights to require the STI for submission to OSTI.

“Types of STI must be identified for collection for all DOE funded and/or supported R&D and related activities. DOE must have sufficient rights to the STI that is identified. These rights, as well as any protections, limitations, and/or restrictions, must be provided as part of the award terms to ensure proper collection, dissemination, and preservation of the STI (See Attachment 3).”

New definitions for R&D and STI were developed as part of Attachment 2, Definitions, to provide Departmental Elements with flexibility in determining what is R&D for purposes of STI management and whether certain reports and documents would be considered STI for purposes of identification for submission. Further, Attachment 3, Identifying STI, was added to provide additional instructions when determining what types of STI to require for the R&D award/contract.

Acknowledgement of DOE Support and Markings

When STI is submitted, it is required that the submission include metadata about the sponsoring program. Additionally, publications such as technical reports and accepted manuscripts of journal articles, must include an acknowledgement of funding and disclaimers, and any other marking required by the award or contract, e.g., for reports that are protected for a period of time or CUI.

“Prior to dissemination, STI products must include acknowledgment of Government sponsorship, license rights, and any other notices/disclaimers required by the award terms. STI metadata records must include attribution to the sponsoring program. Language indicating program sponsorship should include DOE, the DOE sponsoring program office, and that sponsoring program office’s subprogram(s) (if possible) funding the research.”

Submission of STI

“STI and/or the associated metadata records must be provided to DOE’s central coordinating office, the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) to fulfill DOE responsibilities for collection, dissemination, and preservation of STI. STI identification and submission requirements can be found in Attachments 3 and 4 of the Order.”

To help identify STI and what is required for submission, an updated definition for STI was developed as part of Attachment 2, Definitions. Also, Attachment 3, Identifying STI, was added and Attachment 4, Submission of STI, was updated.

Visit Submission Basics for more information.

STI Reviews

Reviews to ensure that the STI is managed appropriately are required for STI that is submitted to OSTI and it is the responsibility of the Releasing Official for the Departmental Element or Contractor to ensure that those reviews occur prior to dissemination, including legacy STI.

“STI and/or associated metadata submitted to OSTI must be reviewed prior to release to ensure that it is managed, and then disseminated or safeguarded using the proper access limitations.” (see Order for a list of types of reviews to be performed)

“Due to new or updated document classification requirements, legacy documents previously submitted to OSTI may require a secondary review by the originating site, facility, or sponsoring program office if a request is received for dissemination of the document. Updated markings should be applied, and the document should be re-submitted to OSTI with the new markings and the appropriate access limitations.”

For more information, see Protected STI, Marking Requirements, Handling/Access Restriction Markings

STI Program Representation (Technical Information Officers)

Special emphasis on Technical Information Officers (TIOs) has been provided in the effort to increase participation across Departmental Elements in the STI Program (STIP).

“Departmental Elements that sponsor R&D must delegate a senior official (Technical Information Officer [TIO]) to address STI policy issues and participate in DOE’s Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP). OSTI will maintain a public list of TIOs on the STIP website (https://www.osti.gov/stip/about/stip-community#TechnicalInformationOfficers).”

For those that are interested in participating or would like to learn more about STIP and becoming a TIO, please contact STIP.