NOAA Plan for Increasing Public Access to 

Research Results

prepared by 

the NOAA Research Council 

ad hoc Public Access to Research Results Committee

co-chairs

Jeff de La Beaujardiere, NOAA Data Management Architect

Neal Kaske, Director, NOAA Central and Regional Libraries

A Response to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy 

Memorandum Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific 

Research issued February 22, 2013

NOAA Research Council

Silver Spring, Maryland

February 2015

doi:10.7289/V5F47M2H
NOAA Plan for Increasing Public Access to Research Results

1. Background and Purpose.......................................................................................................................2

2. Scope .....................................................................................................................................................3

3. Requirements and Recommendations..................................................................................................4

4. Applicability ...........................................................................................................................................5

5. Authority................................................................................................................................................5

6. Roles and Responsibilities.....................................................................................................................5

7. Implementation.....................................................................................................................................5

7.1. Grantee-Specific Tasks....................................................................................................................6

7.2. Publication-specific tasks................................................................................................................8

7.3. Data-specific tasks........................................................................................................................11

7.4. Linkage of Publications and Environmental data .........................................................................15

8. Metrics and Enforcement....................................................................................................................16

8.1. Metrics..........................................................................................................................................16

8.2. Enforcement................................................................................................................................. 16

9. Public Consultation and Public/Private Partnerships..........................................................................17

9.1. Public Consultation.......................................................................................................................17

9.2. Public/Private Partnerships..........................................................................................................17

10. Interagency Coordination..................................................................................................................18

11. Public Notice and Legal Reviews .......................................................................................................19

12. Plan Update and Reevaluation ..........................................................................................................19

13. Timeline for Implementation ............................................................................................................19

14. Resources...........................................................................................................................................20

15. Risks...................................................................................................................................................21

Appendix A: Acronyms................................................................................................................................22

Version 5.04 1 2015 Feb 13
1. Background and Purpose

This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) plan to increase Public Access to 

Research Results (PARR) describes activities that will be undertaken by NOAA in order to meet the goals 

and requirements of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Memorandum 

Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research1 issued 2013 February 22 

(hereafter referred to as the OSTP PARR Memo). The goal of the OSTP PARR Memo is to increase the 

public accessibility of publications and digital data produced by federal researchers or by recipients of 

federal funds. These results were funded by taxpayers, and improving access to them should help move 

science and our economy forward. The OSTP objectives for digital data are in excellent agreement with 

those expressed in the NOAA Environmental Data Management Framework.2

To the extent feasible and consistent with applicable law and policy, agency mission, resource 

constraints, and U.S. national, homeland, and economic security, the NOAA PARR plan supports the 

objectives of the OSTP PARR Memo regarding publications and data. The NOAA PARR Plan also supports 

the provisions of the US Open Data Policy regarding public agency data inventories and the use of 

machine-readable and open formats, data standards, and common core and extensible metadata for all 

new information creation and collection efforts. Specific NOAA actions are described in Section 7, 

below, of the NOAA PARR plan, and each action includes reference(s) to the corresponding objective of 

the OSTP PARR Memo. The NOAA PARR plan is designed to promote the goal of maximizing the impact 

and accountability of the Federal research investment.

The following core principles apply to the NOAA plan:

● Publications and environmental data funded through taxpayer dollars will be made publicly 

accessible in a timely fashion.

● In the case of articles published by limited-access journals, NOAA will require an embargo period

of no more than 12 months prior to free public access, consistent with guidance from OSTP.

● Additional paperwork, administrative hurdles, and reporting requirements for researchers 

creating data or publications will be minimized.

● Existing activities, systems, and approaches will be leveraged and reused to minimize 

duplicative, incompatible, or wasted effort.

This plan was developed and revised by the ad hoc Public Access to Research Results Committee 

established by the NOAA Research Council in response to the OSTP memorandum. PARR Committee 

members were:

● Dr Jeff de La Beaujardière (co-chair, as NOAA Data Management Architect)

● Dr Neal Kaske (co-chair, as Director of NOAA Central & Regional Libraries)

● Dr Danielle Tillman (NOAA Research Council liaison)

● Dr Mark Brady (NMFS)

● Paul Comar (NOS)

● LCDR Cecile Daniels (OMAO)

● Ingrid Guch (NESDIS)

● Douglas Perry (OMAO)

1

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf

2

https://www.nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/framework.php

Version 5.04 2 2015 Feb 13

 
● Allen Shimada (NMFS)

● Ronald Stouffer (OAR)

● Harry Tabak (NWS)

● Dr Marina Timofeyeva (NWS)

2. Scope

● The NOAA PARR Plan applies to research results, defined by the OSTP PARR Memo as (1) the 

results of unclassified research directly arising from Federal funding that are published in peerreviewed publications and (2) digitally formatted scientific data resulting from unclassified 

research supported wholly or in part by Federal funding. "Federal funding" is as defined in OMB 

Circulars A-11 and A-21.

● For NOAA-produced research results, the Plan applies to all future results, and to all past, 

current and future results from current or future Programs. The Plan also applies to all legacy 

results archived at one of the NOAA National Data Centers.

3 The OSTP PARR Memo states that 

agencies must protect "confidentiality and personal privacy [and] intellectual property rights" 

and must consider "the balance between the relative value of long-term preservation and access 

and the associated cost and administrative burden." Therefore, the NOAA PARR Plan recognizes 

that some results may not be readily accessible or permanently archived, but that decisions to 

withhold access or omit long-term preservation must be explicit and justified.

● The Plan does not apply to non-archived legacy results that were produced by NOAA Programs 

which no longer exist, unless those results are deemed worthy of preservation by an existing 

Program which identifies the necessary resources for archiving. NOAA recognizes that this 

means some historical results may be lost, but NOAA does not have the resources necessary for 

comprehensive data rescue. The EDMC Procedure for Scientific Records Appraisal and Archive 

Approval4 defines how the Data Centers assess whether or not to archive particular datasets 

based on considerations such as long-term value of the data and storage, network, or personnel 

resources needed.

● For research results produced by NOAA grantees, cooperative institutes, and contractors, the 

Plan applies to results produced after the effective date of the Plan and is not retroactive.

● For NOAA, "scientific data" specifically means environmental data, which are defined by NOAA 

Administrative Order (NAO) 212-155 as "recorded and derived observations and measurements 

of the physical, chemical, biological, geological, and geophysical properties and conditions of the 

oceans, atmosphere, space environment, sun, and solid earth, as well as correlative data, such 

as socio-economic data, related documentation, and metadata." NAO 212-15 goes on to state 

that "Media, including voice recordings and photographs, may be included," but for the 

purposes of the NOAA PARR plan we include only digital imagery, audio recordings, or video 

recordings of environmental phenomena (such as recordings of animal sounds or undersea 

video). Numerical model outputs, and data from laboratory experiments, are included in this 

definition and should be considered for access and archiving. Non-digital media (paper, analog 

tape), physical specimens, and preserved samples are not included. Software, other than tools 

required to ingest or read data in the formats offered, is not included in this definition.

3 Includes the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC, http://ncdc.noaa.gov/), National Geophysical Data Center 

(NGDC, http://ngdc.noaa.gov/), and National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC, http://www.nodc.noaa.gov). 4

https://www.nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/documents/NOAA_Procedure_document_final_12-16-1.pdf 5

https://www.nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/nao_212-15.php

Version 5.04 3 2015 Feb 13

 
● For NOAA, "publications" shall also include NOAA technical reports and professional papers 

issued or sponsored by NOAA, in addition to peer-reviewed publications as covered by the OSTP 

PARR Memo.

3. Requirements and Recommendations

The majority of this plan refers to requirements or activities that already exist, especially in the 

context of environmental data. This plan also includes tasks that may impose additional 

requirements on, or provide recommendations to, NOAA and external entities funded by NOAA, 

particularly as related to publications. The Implementation section of the plan (§7) provides the 

detail, but conceptually the following are discussed:

● NOAA Programs that produce data or perform research shall, within their own budgets, allocate 

resources for data access and archiving or justify the absence of such resources (see Section 14).

● NOAA Program Managers, or other designated officials or supervisors, shall enforce the 

provisions of this Plan for the research results they produce internally or support via contracts 

(see Section 8).

● NOAA will continue to require intramural data producers to develop comprehensive data

management (DM) plans, to document their data with metadata, to submit approved data to a 

National Data Center for long-term preservation, and to make their data publicly accessible.

● NOAA will continue to require extramural grantees to include a data sharing plan in their 

proposals, and if awarded to make the resulting data visible, accessible, and independently 

understandable (that is, well documented with structured metadata) to users in a timely 

manner (typically within two years).

6

● NOAA will encourage and support long-term preservation of some, but not all, extramural data 

based on existing guidelines for archive approval.

● NOAA, in consultation with OSTP, will implement a new requirement that publication authors, 

both intramural and extramural, deposit final NOAA technical reports and final pre-publication 

manuscripts in a document repository identified by NOAA.

● NOAA will leverage existing Data Centers and will not create new ones as part of this Plan.

● NOAA will continue assigning permanent identifiers to archival datasets, and will provide 

guidelines for citing data used in publications.

External to NOAA, we note that journal publishers have stated they will make copies of published papers 

freely available, possibly after an embargo period of ~12 months, through the Clearinghouse for the 

Open Research of the United States (CHORUS). 7 Also, the university community is planning to make the 

final manuscripts of articles and research data sets available through Shared Access Research Ecosystem 

(SHARE). 8

The policies and activities described in this Plan will enhance innovation and competitiveness by 

maximizing the potential to create new business opportunities from the wealth of NOAA environmental 

observations and published results based on those data.

6 https://www.nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/documents/EDMC-PD-DSP.pdf 7 http://chorusaccess.org/

8 http://www.arl.org/focus-areas/shared-access-research-ecosystem-share

Version 5.04 4 2015 Feb 13

 
4. Applicability

The policies to be developed or revised pursuant to this Plan apply, in whole or in part, to NOAA 

Programs, NOAA federal employees, NOAA contractors, and proposers or recipients of NOAA grants or 

cooperative agreements, if their work produces, or commissions the production of, environmental data 

or publications.

5. Authority

Governance documents applicable to this plan include:

● US Open Data Policy (2013 May 9 Executive Order9 and OMB Memorandum M-13-1310)

● OMB Circular A-1611 (2002, revised 2010)

● US Digital Government Strategy12 (2011)

● NOAA Next Generation Strategic Plan (NGSP)

13

● NOAA Administrative Order (NAO) 212-153

● NAO 205-17A: Information Access & Dissemination14

● NOAA Environmental Data Management Committee (EDMC) Procedural Directives (PDs)

15

6. Roles and Responsibilities

NOAA entities responsible for executing each aspect of this plan are indicated in the description of the 

tasks in the Implementation section (§7) of this plan. Responsible entities include:

● NOAA Central & Regional Libraries and other NOAA libraries

● NOAA Environmental Data Management Committee (EDMC)

● NOAA Acquisition & Grants Office (AGO)

● NOAA grant-issuing Programs 

● NOAA Research Council (NRC)

● NOAA National Data Centers (NCDC, NGDC, NODC)

● NOAA Data Management Architect (DMA)

● NOAA Data Management Integration Team (DMIT)

● NOAA and Department of Commerce Offices of General Counsel 

● NOAA Line and Staff Offices

7. Implementation

This section defines the actual scope of work under this plan. The work breakdown includes policies 

applicable to extramural grantees (7.1), publication-specific tasks (7.2), data-specific tasks (7.3), and 

tasks related to the linkage between publications and data (7.4).

9

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/09/executive-order-making-open-and-machine-readablenew-default-government- 10http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2013/m-13-13.pdf 11http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars_a016_rev

12http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/egov/digital-government/digital-government.html 13http://www.ppi.noaa.gov/ngsp/

14http://www.corporateservices.noaa.gov/ames/administrative_orders/chapter_205/205-17.html 15https://www.nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/PD.all.php

Version 5.04 5 2015 Feb 13

 
NOAA’s plan ensures that all extramural researchers receiving Federal grants and contracts for scientific 

research and intramural researchers develop data management plans describing how they will provide 

for long-term preservation of, and access to, scientific data in digital formats resulting from federally 

funded research, or explain why long-term preservation and access cannot be justified. Extramural 

grantees are subject to the policy described in 7.1.1, while intramural researchers and contractors are 

subject to the various directives described in Section 7.3. 

Most of the tasks described in this Plan are a continuation or refinement of existing or planned policies 

and activities. The only wholly-new tasks are the method to provide access to published papers (Section 

7.2.1) and a NOAA Publications Policy (7.2.2). In each task description, we indicate which requirement(s) 

of the OSTP memorandum the task addresses. Implementation of tasks in this plan may be subject to 

negotiation with bargaining units.

7.1. Grantee-Specific Tasks

7.1.1. Revise Grantee Data Sharing Policy 

The EDMC issued a NOAA Data Sharing Policy for Grants and Cooperative Agreements16 in 2012. This 

existing policy requires (1) that proposals from extramural groups include a plan for making data publicly 

accessible, and (2) that data resulting from funded proposals be shared in a timely fashion (typically no 

later than two years after the data are collected or created). The policy refers to "data sharing plans," 

which are similar to the "data management plans" required by National Science Foundation (NSF) 

grantees but are less comprehensive than the DM plans required for NOAA intramural projects (see 

section 7.3.1). Data sharing plans are reviewed as part of the process for considering grant proposals. 

Specific language was approved by Office of General Counsel for inclusion in announcements of 

opportunity and notices of award. The existing policy refers only to data access ("sharing") and not longterm archiving for potential future users.

The NOAA Data Sharing Policy will be revised by EDMC to impose requirements both on NOAA Programs 

that issue grants and on grant recipients, and to indicate that grant programs must consider whether 

the resulting data are likely to be worthy of archiving. All grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements 

will include requirements for data management planning consistent with the goals of the Data Sharing 

Policy. Terms and Conditions will include language that requires scientists seeking funding to describe 

how and where they will make their data available to the public and explicitly require the data that 

underlie the conclusions of peer-reviewed scientific publications be made available for discovery, 

retrieval, and analysis for free at the time of publication. Appropriate exceptions to these guidelines will 

also be outlined.

As indicated in the timeline in Section 13, revision will occur during FY2015, legal review will be 

performed in FY2016 Q1, and provisions will take effect in FY2016 Q2.

17 Specifically:

● NOAA Programs, prior to issuing new announcements of grant opportunities, shall be required 

to develop, and to reference in the announcement, a high-level DM plan describing how the 

NOAA Program expects data likely to result from the funded grants to be made accessible and 

preserved for future use. Short-term access may be enabled through existing NOAA program 

16https://www.nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/PD.DSP.php

17 Note that policies involving extramural researchers require greater legal review than internal directives.

Version 5.04 6 2015 Feb 13

 
facilities and centers of data, or through grantee facilities, or through the SHared Access 

Research Ecosystem (SHARE)8 maintained by the academic community. However, at NOAA longterm preservation and access (on the scale of decades or more) are guaranteed only by the 

NOAA National Data Centers. Program-level DM plans shall include a preliminary statement 

regarding appropriate access points and whether or not the resulting data are likely to be 

worthy of long-term preservation and, if so, where they should be archived. To streamline 

communication between external grantees and NOAA National Data Centers, NOAA Programs 

that find grantee data worthy to be archived at NOAA shall be required to make initial contact 

with the appropriate Data Center to ensure available funding, capacity, and methods for archival 

submission.

● NOAA EDMC shall develop a template (by FY2016 Q1) of a data sharing plan for inclusion in 

announcements of opportunity and shall provide guidelines for reviewers to evaluate the quality 

of submitted data sharing plans. Scientists seeking funding will be required to describe how and 

where they will make their data available to the public and explicitly describe how they will 

make the data that underlies scientific publications available for discovery, retrieval, and 

analysis.

● NOAA Programs, at their discretion, may include a requirement in Notices of Award that 

grantees submit data developed with NOAA funding to a NOAA National Data Center (unless 

deemed not necessary or cost-effective to archive by the grantor's DM plan or through 

discussion with a Data Center). The EDMC Procedure for Scientific Records Appraisal and Archive 

Approval4 provides guidance for Data Centers on whether to accept submissions.

● Grant proposals shall include a Data Sharing plan compatible with the high-level DM Plan 

provided by the NOAA program originating the grant opportunity.

● Funded grantees shall be required to make their data accessible in a timely fashion, typically not 

more than one year after data collection. This is a shortening of the timescale compared to the

original version of the policy. A provision to that effect shall be included in the grant award.

Grantees will be required to make the data underlying the conclusions of peer-reviewed 

scholarly publications available for free at the time of initial publication in appropriate 

repositories.

● Funded grantees shall be required to submit data for archiving to a NOAA National Data Center 

if the NOAA program originating the grant opportunity has included that requirement.

● Grantees shall be required to specify funding sources using the FundRef18 mechanism when 

papers are submitted for publication. (Publishers have established FundRef to gather this 

information in a more structured way than the current practice of a free-text 

acknowledgements section. FundRef allows multiple funding sources to be identified, and 

enables agencies to determine what published papers were supported in whole or in part by 

their funds.)

● Grantees shall be required to submit a digital copy of final pre-publication manuscripts to the 

NOAA Institutional Repository (see Section 7.2.1) once accepted for publication and the final 

pre-publication copy is available.

● NOAA grant programs, at their discretion, may state that reasonable costs of data sharing and 

archiving are allowed to be included in the proposal budget.

18http://crossref.org/fundref/

Version 5.04 7 2015 Feb 13

 
All requirements imposed by this plan on extramural grantees or cooperative agreements will be 

incorporated in this revised policy, which will require review by Office of General Counsel (section 11). 

The other policies or procedures discussed in this plan apply to NOAA employees and contractors.

Responsible: NOAA Programs, NOAA grantees, EDMC, AGO, NOAA National Data Centers, Office of 

General Counsel, NOAA Central Library

PARR Requirement19 : 4.a.iii, 4.b, 4.c, 4.d, 4.f

7.1.2. Establish Grant Compliance Process

NOAA will use existing mechanisms to check on past performance of grantees, and if necessary augment 

or improve compliance verification, to ensure NOAA grant recipients are made aware of their 

obligations and to track compliance with requirements in the Data Sharing policy as revised. Specifically, 

funding announcements will state these obligations as part of the proposal instructions, and funding 

awards will include language stating the obligations. The process must minimize additional burdens on 

NOAA Programs, individual investigators, and institutions as much as possible.

Responsible: AGO, NOAA Research Council Cooperative Institute Committee

PARR Requirement: 2.d, 2.e

7.2. Publication-specific tasks

The tasks described in this section are specific to publications based on environmental data rather than 

to the actual environmental data. 

7.2.1. Establish Institutional Repository

Requirement 3.a of the OSTP memo states that agencies must "ensure that the public can read, 

download, and analyze in digital form final peer-reviewed manuscripts or final published documents 

within a timeframe that is appropriate for each type of research conducted or sponsored by the 

agency." Requirement 3.f goes on to state that agencies must provide for "access to the content without 

charge" and "ensure that publications and [bibliographic] metadata are stored in an archival solution 

that provides for long-term preservation." To meet these requirements NOAA will establish a Repository 

providing search, access, and archiving of research manuscripts.

Both intramural and extramural researchers shall be required to submit their final pre-publication

manuscripts to the NOAA Institutional Repository (to be established as described below) upon 

acceptance of the paper by a journal. The NOAA Institutional Repository web interface will allow the 

public to search for publications and shall provide access for persons with disabilities consistent with 

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Submitted manuscripts shall be required to be in an 

accessible format (for example, Adobe Portable Document Format [PDF] with Adobe Accessibility Check 

performed). Full standard bibliographic metadata for each paper will be publicly available at the time 

the article is published by the journal. The bibliographic metadata will include the Digital Object 

Identifier (or other link if a DOI has not been assigned) of the published version, thereby allowing users 

to retrieve the article (possibly requiring payment during the embargo period). After the embargo has 

19 These requirement numbers refer to elements of the 2013 OSTP Memorandum 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf

Version 5.04 8 2015 Feb 13

 
elapsed, the manuscript itself shall automatically be made available by NOAA publicly and free of 

charge.

The Repository will provide search and retrieval mechanisms that will allow the public to access these 

resources via both user interface and machine-readable API. The resources will be stored in standard 

digital formats for which access methods are widely available. NOAA will migrate the resources to newer 

versions of these formats when NOAA determines that such migration is in the best interest of longterm storage and public access. In all cases, NOAA will maintain the original digital version of these 

resources to ensure historical accuracy.

In addition, the Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States (CHORUS),7 proposed by a 

consortium of publishers including most of the major journals, has stated it will provide free access, 

possibly after embargo, to articles directly from the publishers' own systems. This method could provide

access to the as-published version of the article. However, the NOAA Institutional Repository will ensure 

public accessibility and archiving of at least the final manuscript in the event CHORUS is not adopted by 

the journals in which NOAA staff publish.

NOAA already has a repository established by NOAA Library in partnership with Department of 

Commerce (DOC) National Technical Information Service (NTIS) for documents relating to the 

Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Plans are underway to establish a new NOAA Institutional Repository whose 

scope will include the final pre-publication manuscripts of NOAA-authored and NOAA-sponsored 

unclassified research papers as well as NOAA technical reports, data reports, technical memoranda, and 

other discrete documents. Documents intended for internal use only or materials developed for 

litigation would not be included.

NOAA reviewed the functionality of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) repository system known as 

CDC Stacks20 and found that it meets NOAA requirements for metadata storage, metadata display, and 

search functionality sufficient to allow the ability to search, download, read, and analyze publications in 

machine-readable digital format, and that it provides an archival solution which uses standard, widely 

available archival formats for text and associated content (such as images, video, and supporting files).

NOAA and CDC will enter into an interagency agreement and begin implementation of the new NOAA 

Institutional Repository in January 2015. The agreement will state that CDC will be the systems provider 

and NOAA Central Library will be the contact manager.

The CDC Repository system is designed to freely share the metadata records associated with a 

publication. There is no automated system for downloading all publications in CDC Stacks, which limits 

unauthorized redistribution. Users can request a copy of the publications that can be freely 

redistributed based on the publication’s license. 

Once a manuscript is placed in the Institutional Repository it will be preserved there as an archival copy; 

format migration may be performed as technologies evolve, but the content will not be otherwise 

changed. The Repository will be backed up on a regular basis and stored on a redundant site.

The NOAA Institutional Repository will facilitate search and analysis of scholarly publications and other 

documents directly arising from research funded by NOAA as well as other documents not generally 

20 http://stacks.cdc.gov/

Version 5.04 9 2015 Feb 13

 
published elsewhere. In some cases, for work sponsored only in part by NOAA, the NOAA Repository 

may contain only bibliographic metadata with links to the location of the document on the other 

sponsor’s site.

Any stakeholder may petition for a change in the embargo period by emailing the Executive Secretariat

of the NOAA Research Council with the details of the change requested at oar.rc.execsec@noaa.gov ; a 

decision will be made and communicated to the requesting stakeholder within 120 days. Requests to 

change the embargo period must include evidence that outweighs the public benefit of having the 

embargo remain at one year. Given the interdisciplinary nature of research today, NOAA may contact 

other agencies or departments to coordinate embargo policies. Researchers who wish their papers 

made freely available prior to expiration of the embargo period may publish in journals where open or 

earlier access is the norm, or may pay for open access in journals which offer that option.

NOAA will include sufficient metadata to allow for creation of collections within the Repository to meet 

specific retrieval needs, including specific programs, provenance of resources, topical areas, funding 

sources, and other areas for which NOAA determines a need. The NOAA Central Library will capture or 

create metadata for NOAA-funded peer-reviewed publications through a variety of methods. 

Specifically, Library staff will perform automated searches of online databases such as Web of Science

that contain bibliographic information for most NOAA publications and capture metadata for these 

items in a local EndNote database. Library staff will manually cross-check this listing against a listing of 

upcoming publications issued by NOAA Office of the Undersecretary. In addition, library staff will 

establish workflows with NOAA offices that produce manuscripts to obtain the digital objects and 

metadata required to archive these objects in the Repository. Library staff will establish these collection 

networks via librarians, authors, or other contacts within each Line Office, as appropriate.

The Library staff will load these submission packages (metadata + manuscripts + additional files) into the 

Repository. The metadata for each article will feature digital object identifiers (DOIs) for the published 

version of the article, as well as an embargo end date. Prior to the embargo end date the system will 

block access to the manuscript but permit access to the published version.

The NOAA Library is currently tracking the peer-reviewed publications authored by NOAA staff and has 

full bibliographic information for each publication including the DOI. This effort started with FY 2012 and 

could be expanded to extramural peer-reviewed publications at some point in the future, but it would 

require additional funding for the Library.

Responsible: NOAA Central Library

PARR Requirement: 2.a, 3.a, 3.a.i, 3.b, 3.c, 3.d, 3.f.i, 3.f.ii, 3.f.iii, 3.f.iv

7.2.2. Develop NOAA Publications Policy 

NOAA will develop a Public Access Policy for Scholarly Publications to supplement its newly revised 

NOAA Administrative Order (NAO 205-17A) Information Access & Dissemination21. The NAO designates 

the NOAA Central Library as the information repository for scientific and technical publications, and 

requires the Library to provide access to and preserve the published results of NOAA’s research. The 

21http://www.corporateservices.noaa.gov/ames/administrative_orders/chapter_205/205-17.html

Version 5.04 10 2015 Feb 13

 
NAO requires the Library to develop and maintain metadata describing NOAA publications.22. The Public 

Access Policy for Scholarly Publications to be developed will address additional issues as needed to 

ensure consistency with the PARR requirements. Included in the policy will be a requirement for authors 

to use the FundRef14 mechanism to indicate which funding source(s) supported the research reported in 

the paper. In addition, the policy will include an approach for optimizing search, archival, and 

dissemination features that encourages innovation in accessibility and interoperability and facilitates 

analysis, while ensuring long-term stewardship of the results of federally funded research and access to 

content without charge.

Requirements specifically for extramural grant recipients will also be explained in the Grantee Data 

Sharing Policy discussed in Section 7.1.1.

Responsible: NOAA Central Library (writing); NOAA Research Council (approval and issuance)

PARR requirement: 3.a, 3.b, 3.c, 3.e, 3.f

7.3. Data-specific tasks

The tasks described in this section are specific to digital environmental data rather than to publications. 

In addition to these tasks, NOAA will continue existing efforts to make observations, derived products, 

model outputs, and other environmental information available to the public. To the extent feasible and 

consistent with applicable law and policy, agency mission, resource constraints, U.S. national, homeland, 

and economic security, and the objectives listed below, digitally formatted scientific data resulting from 

unclassified research supported wholly or in part by Federal funding should be stored and publicly 

accessible to search, retrieve, and analyze. This section describes how NOAA will improve data 

management planning, maintain an agency data inventory, document its data, augment data 

accessibility, and improve data preservation.

7.3.1. Revise and Enforce Data Management Planning Procedural Directive

The EDMC issued a Data Management Planning Procedural Directive23 in 2011. This directive applies to 

NOAA employees and contractors,24 and states that producers of environmental data must plan --

preferably in advance -- how they will provide for data access, how they will document their data, and 

how they will ensure its long-term preservation. The directive provides a DM plan template consisting of 

a series of questions regarding how project data will be managed.

A revised version of the Data Management Planning Procedural Directive will be issued in late 2015 

which:

● Adds language indicating that NOAA Programs that produce environmental data, or that issue 

contracts to produce data, are responsible for writing a data management plan and for ensuring 

the data they produce are made accessible and are appropriately managed. 

● Augments the DM plan template to include question(s) regarding whether funds have been 

identified in the project budget to manage the data.

22See http://www.lib.noaa.gov/researchtools/subjectguides/noaa_publications.html for a current running list of 

NOAA-authored publications and links to full attribution information. 23https://www.nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/PD.DMP.php

24 Extramural grantees are subject to the Data Sharing Policy described in Section 7.1.1.

Version 5.04 11 2015 Feb 13

 
● Streamlines the existing template to remove redundant or unneeded questions.

To ensure that intramural researchers comply with data management policies, NOAA will assess on an 

annual basis whether each of its Observing Systems of Record has filed a DM plan, established a data 

access mechanism, and sent data to an archival data center for long-term preservation. Such an

assessment was first performed in FY2013, at which time approximately one-third of the observing 

systems had a DM plan. These metrics will be reported to the NOAA Observing Systems Council to 

encourage the development of DM Plans, and to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council to enforce 

the inclusion of a DM Plan in requests for funding the IT costs of projects that produce data and 

disclosed publicly on the NOAA EDMC web site at https://www.nosc.noaa.gov/EDMC/ .

Responsible: EDMC, NOAA Line and Staff Offices

PARR requirement: 4.c, 4.d, 4.e

7.3.2. Maintain Agency Data Inventory

The US Open Data Policy6,7 mandated the creation of a comprehensive inventory of agency data. The 

NOAA Data Catalog (http://data.noaa.gov/), established in November 2013, enables discovery of 

NOAA's public research data holdings and satisfies both OSTP PARR Memo and US Open Data Policy 

requirements. The NOAA Data Management Architect (DMA), members of the Data Management 

Integration Team (DMIT), and the NOAA Office of the CIO (OCIO) are involved in maintaining this 

inventory. NOAA will, at a minimum, include the common core metadata schema in use by the federal 

government, found at https://project-open-data.cio.gov/ . This catalog is part of the comprehensive 

public listing of agency data that was required by the Executive Order of May 9, 2013 and OMB 

Memorandum M-13-13. The JSON file for the current public listing of datasets is provided at 

https://data.noaa.gov/data.json .

Responsible: DMA, DMIT, NOAA OCIO

PARR Requirement: 2.b, 2.c, 4.a

7.3.3. Continue implementation of Data Documentation Procedural Directive

The EDMC issued a Data Documentation Procedural Directive4 in 2011 that requires environmental data 

to be comprehensively described using structured metadata based on the International Organization for 

Standardization (ISO) 19115 and 19139 standards (known as "ISO Metadata"). Such metadata are 

essential for data to be properly included in and discovered via a catalog or inventory (§7.3.2), for 

proper understanding and use of data that are made available publicly (i.e., to users who are not already 

familiar with the data), for data preservation (§7.3.5), and for the creation of dataset landing pages 

(§7.4.1). The NOAA National Data Centers are developing training and tools for metadata creation and

for automatically assessing metadata completeness. NOAA will continue implementation of this 

Directive and the associated tools and training. The metadata for scientific data will include, at a 

minimum, the common core metadata schema25 in use by the Federal government but are typically 

much richer.

Responsible: EDMC, NOAA National Data Centers

PARR requirement: 4h, 4.i

25 https://project-open-data.cio.gov/

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7.3.4. Issue Data Access Procedural Directive

The EDMC will issue a Data Access Procedural Directive in early 2015 that will require data produced 

internally or via contracts to be made publicly discoverable through the agency data inventory and 

publicly accessible via online services in widely-used machine-readable formats. No single format or 

service is applicable to all NOAA data, but the directive will recommend appropriate formats and 

services for particular classes of data. Many NOAA datasets are already available online in standard 

formats, and continuing this work will help establish a federated system of services. Existing formats and 

services can be maintained alongside standard ones if needed to serve existing customers.

Use of standard formats and machine-readable services is mandated by the federal Open Data Policy.6,7

Coordination with other agencies regarding standards will occur through the mechanisms described in 

Section 10.

The Data Access directive will discuss timeliness of data access (how long data can remain internallyheld before they are publicly released). The NOAA EDM Framework2 discusses timeliness in section 

2.1.1, stating in part that "NOAA data should be made publicly available with minimum time delay after 

capture" but that the timeliness may not be the same in all cases. The EDM Framework also discusses 

data quality (section 2.1.3).

Responsible: EDMC, NOAA Line and Staff Offices

PARR requirement: 2.b, 4a

7.3.5. Continue Data Preservation Activities

NOAA has considerable expertise in ensuring the long-term preservation of scientific data, and has wellestablished repositories for scientific data in digital formats. Specifically, NOAA maintains three worldclass National Data Centers specializing in the long-term preservation and stewardship of environmental 

data: the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC, established in 1951), National Geophysical Data Center 

(NGDC, 1965), and National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC, 1961). Much of the data produced by 

NOAA is already sent on a routine or automated basis to these archives. NOAA will continue efforts to 

ensure intramural datasets are submitted for long-term preservation. Also, as described in Section 7.1.1, 

NOAA will endeavor to archive extramural data of long-term relevance but likely cannot archive 

everything. Finally, some model outputs are worthy of long-term preservation, but their considerable 

volume makes it infeasible to permanently archive all outputs.

Responsible: NOAA National Data Centers, EDMC

PARR requirement: 4.a.iii, 4.f, 4.j

7.3.6. Cooperate with Private Sector to Improve Data Access and Compatibility

NOAA will continue its long-standing membership in the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), which 

develops interoperability standards for data access, discovery, and formatting. OGC members includes 

private-sector companies that develop software for geospatial data, and government agencies at 

federal, state, and international levels, and academic institutions. The NOAA Data Management 

Architect (DMA) in the Technology, Planning, and Integration for Observations (TPIO) program funds the 

annual OGC membership dues on behalf of NOAA and maintains a mailing list for discussing OGC-related 

activities.

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Responsible: DMA, NOAA OGC Interest Group

PARR requirement: 4.g

7.3.7. Continue Support for Educational Activities

NOAA will continue, and if possible enhance, its support for training and workforce development 

activities related to DM. Current efforts include:

● Annual NOAA Environmental Data Management Workshop.

● Free metadata training classes offered by National Coastal Data Development Center (NCDDC).

● Grant to Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Federation, which among other activities has 

developed a DM training course and holds bi-annual meetings.

NOAA will continue to monitor the progress of SHARE, CHORUS, and other relevant activities and use 

their training resources as appropriate. NOAA will also participate in interagency training activities 

relevant for it to effectively implement its PARR plan.

Responsible: DMA, NCDDC, and others

PARR requirement: 2.d, 4.i

7.3.8. Clarify Handling of Limited-Access Data

NAO 212-15 states that "environmental data will be visible, accessible and independently 

understandable to users, except where limited by law, regulation, policy (such as those applicable to 

personally identifiable information or protected critical infrastructure information or proprietary trade 

information) or by security requirements." Accessible data must be free of charge or no more than the 

cost of reproduction (per 44 U.S.C. § 3506 (d) (4) (D) Paperwork Reduction Act and OMB Circular A-130 

Management of Federal Information Resources). Nearly all NOAA data can be made publicly available 

as-is. For the few datasets that must be restricted, the Data Access Procedural Directive (Section 7.3.4)

will include an exemption only in limited cases through filing a waiver approved at the Associate 

Administrator level; waivers will be required to state the applicable law, policy, or requirement that 

justifies lack of access. The existing policy is to provide open access unless permission to deny access is 

explicitly granted, but at present the determination to withhold data is made at a low level and not 

typically reviewed. The waiver approach will put the paperwork burden on those who wish to limit 

access.

Some data that would be restricted can be made public after aggregation. For example, commercial 

fishing trip data includes names of vessels and catch information. Removing confidential information 

involves taking trip-level data and aggregating it so that no individual trip data remains. NOAA will 

continue to protect confidentiality and personal privacy, and to recognize proprietary interests, business 

confidential information, and intellectual property rights, and will avoid significant negative impact on 

intellectual property rights, innovation, and U.S. competitiveness. NOAA and DOC Offices of General 

Counsel will be engaged as appropriate to provide input on and assist in the implementation of this 

section.

Responsible: NMFS, NOAA Grant Programs, Line, and Staff Offices, NOAA CIO

PARR Requirement: 4.a.i, 4.a.ii

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7.4. Linkage of Publications and Environmental data

The tasks described in this section apply to the ability to link publications and data by citing specific 

datasets in the reference list of a publication (much like journal articles are able to cite other articles).

7.4.1. Assign Dataset Identifiers

In 2013, the NOAA National Data Centers and the Data Management Architect began a project to assign 

persistent, resolvable identifiers to archival datasets. These Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) provide 

recognition for data producers, enable datasets to be cited in journal articles and other documents, and 

enable references to source data in the metadata for derived data products and numerical models. DOIs 

are linked to "landing pages" which provide attribution for the dataset and links to access data and 

metadata. NOAA National Data Centers are the only entities authorized to issue NOAA dataset 

identifiers. The principal requirements for receiving a DOI are that (1) the data have been approved for 

long-term preservation and (2) sufficient metadata are provided to enable automated creation of the 

landing page. The DMA funds the cost of the annual DOI license on behalf of NOAA through the TPIO 

program. NOAA will continue the process of assigning identifiers to datasets.

In addition, the NOAA Central Library has assigned several DOIs to NOAA documents with the goal of 

developing a program of DOI management for NOAA publications and reports. The Library will include 

these DOIs in the bibliographic metadata for each document, as well as DOIs for related data sets, as 

appropriate. NOAA data centers could cite DOIs for related documents as well.

Responsible: NOAA National Data Centers, DMA

PARR requirement: 4.h

7.4.2. Issue Data Citation Procedural Directive

The NOAA EDMC will issue a Data Citation Procedural Directive26 in early 2015 which will describe the 

process and requirements for obtaining a NOAA DOI and will provide guidelines for citing data using the 

identifier. The directive will require that NOAA researchers cite NOAA and non-NOAA data used in their 

research and publications, and will request that non-NOAA researchers cite NOAA data. The directive 

will also discuss technical considerations regarding assignment of DOIs.

Responsible: EDMC

PARR requirement: 4.h

7.4.3. Develop Recommendation for Researcher Identifiers

NOAA will inform individual researchers of the opportunity to sign up for a unique researcher identifier. 

Such IDs serve to resolve ambiguity when several scientists have the same name or there are multiple 

variants of a particular scientist's name. These IDs also assist in measuring the impact of an individual's 

research. Options to be considered include ORCID27 and ResearcherID.28 NOAA Library staff will assist 

NOAA researchers in obtaining their personal digital identifiers if they so desire.

Responsible: NOAA Central Library

26Users with noaa.gov email addresses may view the draft at http://goo.gl/ENkck 27http://orcid.org/ 28http://www.researcherid.com/

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PARR requirement: 3.e, 4.h

8. Metrics and Enforcement

8.1. Metrics

Several metrics will be established and publicly reported at least annually to gauge progress on the

activities in this plan. The emphasis is on metrics that can be gathered in an automated fashion through 

software or integrated into existing NOAA business processes or evaluation structures (e.g., Balanced 

Scorecard, Progress to Plan). Planned metrics, and the responsible parties for compiling them, are listed 

below (those marked with * can be readily automated, others currently require manual assessment):

EDMC:

● Number of dataset identifiers issued*

● Data citation metrics, as gathered externally by DataCite.org*

● Metrics on the frequency of access or usage of archived data*

● Percentage of NOAA Observing Systems of Record that have a DM Plan, provide data access

points, and submit data for archiving.

NOAA Library:

● Number of intramural and extramural manuscripts (with at least partial NOAA funding) made 

available to the public*

● Number of times intramural and extramural manuscripts are downloaded annually*

● Number of intramural and extramural publications and citations to these publications on an 

annual basis, as reported in Thomson Reuters Web of Science Citation Index*

Grants Management Division:

● Percentage of grant proposals including a Data Sharing Plan

● Percentage of funded data-producing grants that made data accessible

● Percentage of funded data-producing grants that submitted final manuscripts to NOAA 

Institutional Repository.

(*metric can be automatically computed)

8.2. Enforcement

For NOAA research results produced internally or via contracts, enforcement of the provisions of the 

Plan shall be the responsibility of NOAA Programs for the research results they produce or fund. 

Performance Plans of relevant Program Managers, or their designees, shall be revised as necessary to 

explicitly assign responsibility and to enable enforcement as part of annual performance reviews.

For research results funded by one NOAA operating unit but produced by another unit (such that there 

is not direct supervisory control by the funder), the Program Manager (or designee) of the unit providing 

the funding shall be responsible for collecting metrics on compliance with data accessibility and final 

manuscript submission by funding recipients, and for determining whether investigators who do not 

comply shall be prohibited from future funding or otherwise sanctioned.

For extramural grant-funded research results, the Grants Management Division shall be responsible for 

collecting metrics on grantee compliance and determining whether investigators that do not comply 

shall be prohibited from receiving future funding or otherwise sanctioned.

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Responsible: Program managers for enforcement, GMD and various parties for individual metrics

PARR requirement: 2.e

9. Public Consultation and Public/Private Partnerships

9.1. Public Consultation

Stakeholders in this plan include libraries, publishers, federally-funded researchers, cooperative 

institutes, and universities, users of Federally-funded research results, and civil society groups. Some 

stakeholder engagement occurred during development of this Plan. In particular, NOAA participated in

the Public Comment Meeting concerning Public Access to Federally Supported R&D Publications and 

Federally Supported R&D Data held 2013 May 14-17 at the National Academy of Sciences. The public 

comment meetings confirmed that the activities envisioned in the NOAA PARR Plan were in excellent 

alignment with public desires for digital data repositories such as the NOAA National Data Centers and 

with the ability to cite data in publications as described above. Also, NOAA met with journal publisher 

representatives on 2013 June 6. This meeting indicated the potential of CHORUS as a mechanism for 

providing public access to journal articles, which is one of the alternatives discussed in this Plan. 

However, NOAA has not yet been authorized to make this Plan public, and has therefore not been able 

to broadly solicit comments from external stakeholders.

NOAA user engagement and feedback already occurs at the National Data Centers through customer 

service and user engagement specialists, and also within scientific organizations such as the Center for 

Satellite Applications and Research (STAR), Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO), and 

others.

9.2. Public/Private Partnerships

Because it is important that federal engagement with external stakeholders be coherent and effective, 

NOAA does not envision establishing new, NOAA-specific partnerships for PARR. Instead, NOAA will 

participate in existing multi-agency public-private partnerships and stakeholder engagement activities of 

relevance to PARR.

In particular, as discussed elsewhere in this Plan, NOAA will encourage participation in the 

Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States (CHORUS)7 by journal publishers as a method 

for providing access to final publications (with NOAA Institutional Repository providing access and

archiving for pre-publication manuscripts). NOAA will also encourage extramural researchers to make 

data and manuscripts available through the universities' Shared Access Research Ecosystem (SHARE). 8

NOAA will also foster public-private partnerships with scientific journals relevant to NOAA’s research by 

(1) using a DOI to point from the pre-publication manuscript in the NOAA Repository to the published 

version of record located on publishers’ web sites, and (2) assigning DOIs to NOAA archival datasets (as 

described in Section 7.4) to allow research articles to link back to the data upon which they are based.

NOAA has previously issued a Policy on Partnerships in the Provision of Environmental Information29

focusing especially on weather and climate data which states, among other provisos, that NOAA will 

29http://www.noaa.gov/partnershippolicy/

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"avoid duplication and competition in areas not related to the NOAA mission." The NOAA Deepwater 

Horizon Repository effort involved a public-private partnership between NOAA, NTIS, and a private 

entity.

Responsible: Various, depending on nature of partnership or consultation

PARR Requirement: 2.a, 3.d, 3.d.iii, 3.d.iv

9.3. Research Data Commons

NOAA, in collaboration with other Departments and Agencies, will encourage the development or 

sustainment of a "Research Data Commons," a shared space for research output including data, 

software, and narrative associated with NOAA-funded extramural research. Such a Commons will 

adhere to the FAIR principles: Find, Access, Interoperate, and Reuse. The goal will be to make extramural 

digital research data accessible to the public in a manner that optimizes search, archival, and 

dissemination features that encourage innovation in accessibility and interoperability, while ensuring 

long-term stewardship of research data results. A particular focus of the effort will be on making the 

data underlying the conclusions of peer-reviewed scientific publications resulting from federally funded 

scientific research available for free at the time of publication. An example of an existing effort toward 

establishing a research commons is SHARE8 mentioned previously.

Regarding intramural data, NOAA does not intend to establish a new common storage location for its 

vast data holdings. However, our efforts to make all data available via compatible services and formats 

to maximize interoperability in effect enable a "virtual commons" for data. Furthermore, the NOAA Big 

Data Partnership will start pilot project(s) in 2015 to copy a subset of datasets to commercial Cloud 

alongside computation resources, to enable the creation of value-added products and services by the 

private sector.

10. Interagency Coordination

NOAA will leverage existing work as much as possible. We will identify and adopt existing activities 

inside the agency, relevant standards, common approaches, inter-agency mechanisms, or governmentwide agreements. The Institutional Repository will be established in cooperation with CDC (see §7.2.1). 

Areas of possible standardization or software reuse, especially for geospatial data, include data access 

services and catalog services. If absence of existing work in some area requires NOAA to do new 

development, NOAA will inform other agencies of that work in order that they may leverage it as 

appropriate.

NOAA has long coordinated with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) on data issues. Since 

2013, interagency coordination on standards for Earth observation data has been through the US Group 

on Earth Observations (USGEO) Data Management Working Group (DMWG), which NOAA co-chairs. At 

the international level, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the World Climate Research 

Program (WCRP), and others provide coordination bodies for exchange of weather observations and 

model outputs.

NOAA has already coordinated on an informal basis with other agencies on topics discussed in this plan. 

NOAA met with representatives of the DOE Public Access Gateway for Energy and Science prototype on 

2013 June 12 to discuss publication repository concepts. NASA, USGS, EPA, and USDA all have 

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substantial geospatial data holdings, and informal discussions of standards and technologies have taken 

place in forums including the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Technical Committee, Earth Science 

Information Partners (ESIP) Federation meetings, American Geophysical Union (AGU) conferences, and 

the annual NOAA Environmental Data Management Workshop. 

Responsible: NOAA Central Library, EDMC, and others

PARR Requirement: 2.c, 3.d.ii

11. Public Notice and Legal Reviews

No rule-making or related public notices are envisioned at this time.

The NOAA Office of General Counsel and the Department of Commerce Office of General Counsel will be 

engaged to provide input on the implementation of the plan, including the development, review and 

approval of language for extramural funding documents; issues related to limited-access data, copyright 

and license agreements; and the interface of this plan with other legal authorities affecting data 

management and public access to information.

Responsible: NOAA and DOC Offices of General Counsel 

PARR Requirement: 2.d, 2.e

12. Plan Update and Reevaluation

This plan will be reevaluated and updated by the NOAA Research Council as necessary.

Responsible: NOAA Research Council

PARR requirement: 5

13. Timeline for Implementation

NOAA intends to have intramural publications and data comply first, followed by extramural results. This 

will enable NOAA to test new requirements and processes internally before imposing them externally. 

The OSTP memo is not retrospective. New policies or policy changes established by the NOAA PARR Plan 

shall apply only to environmental data generated or manuscripts submitted after the publication date of 

the respective policies. Once the plans take effect, agencies shall report twice yearly (January 1 and July 

1) to OSTP and OMB.

● 2013 Feb 22: OSTP PARR Memorandum issued

● 2013 Aug 22: Draft NOAA plan submitted to OSTP

● 2014 Mar 05: OSTP comments provided on draft NOAA plan

● 2014 Jul: Revised NOAA plan submitted to OSTP

● FY 2015:

○ Q1: Revised Data Management Planning directive issued (§7.3.1)

○ Q2: New Data Access directive issued (§7.3.4), including waiver to be filed for limitedaccess data (§7.3.8).

○ Q2: New Data Citation directive issued (§7.4.2)

○ Q2: Publications Policy written (§7.2.2)

○ Q3: Publications Policy issued by Research Council

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○ Q4: Data Sharing by Grantees directive revised and reviewed (including all changes 

described in §7.1.1)

○ Q4: NOAA Institutional Repository established (§7.2.1)

● FY 2016:

○ Q1: New provisions in sections 7.3.1 (DM Planning) and 7.3.4 (Data Access) take effect 

for intramural data

○ Q1: New provisions in §7.2.2 for intramural publications take effect.

○ Q2: New provisions related to extramural data (§7.1.1) and publications (§7.2.1) take 

effect.

NOTE: Some activities are already in progress or may begin earlier than the dates shown here. In 

particular:

● EDMC and DMA are leading activities to make NOAA data more discoverable, accessible, usable, 

citable, and preserved.

● NOAA Library has a list of most of NOAA’s intramural peer-reviewed publications for FY 2012 

(1,805 publications) and FY 2013 (1,918 publications) and is currently tracking FY 2014 as part of 

a project funded by the Line Offices and overseen by the Research Council. NOAA Library 

maintains an online list of publications and has the DOIs for all the publications that have DOIs. 

People can find the published articles on publisher Web pages. However, the complete 

publication may be behind a paywall.

Responsible: NOAA Research Council

PARR requirement: 2.g

14. Resources

The OSTP memo on public access to research results calls for "identification of resources within the 

existing agency budget to implement the plan." Both budget and personnel (FTE) resources will be 

needed to fully implement the NOAA PARR Plan. Fortunately, NOAA already has a strong tradition and 

infrastructure for making data publicly accessible, so some of the tasks in this plan are already 

underway. 

NOAA Programs that produce data or perform research shall, within their own budgets, allocate 

resources for data access and archiving, or shall explicitly discuss why access and archiving cannot be 

accomplished within existing resources and estimate needed resources, or shall justify why access or 

archiving are not warranted for a particular dataset. To reduce costs, programs shall make use of 

standard formats and services, reusable software, and consolidated or enterprise-wide services and 

licenses to the greatest extent possible. The ability to preserve additional quantities of data will be 

provided through existing modernization activities at the Data Centers, notably the establishment of the 

Common Submission Interface by the Comprehensive Large Array Stewardship System (CLASS) project.

NOAA Programs that issue grants shall consider how to satisfy the grantee requirements in this plan as 

cost-effectively as possible, and shall document instances in which lack of resources prevented access or 

archiving of data that would otherwise have been desired, and shall document instances in which access 

or archiving were deemed not to be warranted for particular grant opportunities.

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Additional resources will likely be necessary to establish and maintain the NOAA Institutional Repository 

for manuscripts. The resources to support the Repository will come from a combination of funds from 

the Line Offices and a small assessment of the grant programs.

Responsible: NOAA Programs

PARR Requirement: 2.f

15. Risks

There are several risks that may hinder execution of this plan:

● Lack of identified resources in existing program budgets for data access or archiving.

● Inability of NOAA Data Centers to archive all extramural data for lack of budget, personnel, or 

storage, and difficulty of assessing which should be archived.

● Lack of personnel to develop and enforce policies.

● Lack of automated mechanisms to confirm compliance by grantees and withhold funding. In the 

absence of automation, manual verification will be used.

In addition, there are policies that may hinder data availability, especially NMFS data:

● Section 302 of the National Historic Preservation Act (Underwater Cultural Heritage Sites)

● NAO 216-100 - Confidentiality Policy

● Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act

● National security policies

Responsible: NOAA Research Council, NMFS for conflicting policies

PARR Requirement: 2.h

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Appendix A: Acronyms

AGO Acquisition and Grants Office

AGU American Geophysical Union

CHORUS Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States

CIO Chief Information Officer

DM Data Management

DMA Data Management Architect

DMIT NOAA Data Management Integration Team

DMWG USGEO Data Management Working Group

DOC Department of Commerce

DOE Department of Energy

DOI Digital Object Identifier

EDM Environmental Data Management

EDMC NOAA Environmental Data Management Committee

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

ESIP Earth Science Information Partners

FY Fiscal Year

ISO International Organization for Standardization

IT Information Technology

NAO NOAA Administrative Order

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NCDC National Climatic Data Center

NCDDC National Coastal Data Development Center

NESDIS National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service

NGDC National Geophysical Data Center

NGSP Next Generation Strategic Plan

NMFS National Marine Fisheries Service

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NODC National Oceanographic Data Center

NOS National Ocean Service

NRC NOAA Research Council

NSF National Science Foundation

NTIS National Technical Information Service

NWS National Weather Service

OAR Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

OGC Open Geospatial Consortium

OMAO Office of Marine and Aviation Operations

OMB Office of Management and Budget

ORCID Open Researcher and Contributor IDentification

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OSPO Office of Satellite and Product Operations

OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy

PARR Public Access to Research Results

PD Procedural Directive

QA/QC Quality Assurance/Quality Control

R&D Research and Development

SHARE SHared Access Research Ecosystem

STAR Center for Satellite Applications and Research

TPIO Technology, Planning, and Integration for Observations

US United States

USC United States Code

USDA United States Department of Agriculture

USGEO United States Group on Earth Observations

USGS United States Geological Survey

WCRP World Climate Research Program

WMO World Meteorological Organization

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