II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 114 

To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide the public with 

access to research of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 7, 2015 

Mr. HELLER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide the 

public with access to research of the Department of 

Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veterans Affairs Re5 search Transparency Act of 2015’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PUBLIC ACCESS TO DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS 

2 AFFAIRS RESEARCH AND DATA SHARING BE3 TWEEN DEPARTMENTS. 

4 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF INTERNET WEBSITE.—The 

5 Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall make available on an 

6 Internet website of the Department of Veterans Affairs 

7 available to the public the following: 

8 (1) Data files that contain information on re9 search of the Department. 

10 (2) A data dictionary on each data file. 

11 (3) Instructions for how to obtain access to 

12 each data file for use in research. 

13 (b) PUBLIC ACCESS TO MANUSCRIPTS ON DEPART14 MENT FUNDED RESEARCH.— 

15 (1) IN GENERAL.—Beginning not later than 

16 540 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 

17 the Secretary shall require, as a condition on the use 

18 of any data gathered or formulated from research 

19 funded by the Department, that any final, peer-re20 viewed manuscript prepared for publication that 

21 uses such data be submitted to the Secretary for— 

22 (A) deposit in the digital archive estab23 lished under paragraph (2); and 

24 (B) publication under paragraph (3). 

25 (2) ESTABLISHMENT OF DIGITAL ARCHIVE.— 

26 Not later than 540 days after the date of the enactVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:35 Jan 14, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S114.IS S114

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1 ment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a dig2 ital archive consisting of manuscripts described in 

3 paragraph (1). 

4 (3) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.— 

5 (A) AVAILABILITY OF ARCHIVE.—The Sec6 retary shall make the digital archive established 

7 under paragraph (2) and the contents of such 

8 archive available to the public via a publicly ac9 cessible Internet website at no cost to the pub10 lic. 

11 (B) AVAILABILITY OF MANUSCRIPTS.—The 

12 Secretary shall ensure that each manuscript 

13 submitted to the Secretary under paragraph (1) 

14 is available to the public under subparagraph 

15 (A) of this paragraph not later than one year 

16 after the official date on which the manuscript 

17 is otherwise published. 

18 (4) CONSISTENT WITH COPYRIGHT LAW.—The 

19 Secretary shall carry out this subsection in a man20 ner consistent with applicable copyright law. 

21 (5) ANNUAL REPORT.— 

22 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year 

23 after the date the Secretary begins making 

24 manuscripts available to the public under this 

25 subsection and not less frequently than once 


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1 each year thereafter, the Secretary shall submit 

2 to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the 

3 Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

4 of the House of Representatives a report on the 

5 implementation of this subsection during the 

6 most recent one-year period. 

7 (B) CONTENTS.—Each report submitted 

8 under subparagraph (A) shall include for the 

9 period of the report: 

10 (i) The number of manuscripts sub11 mitted under paragraph (1). 

12 (ii) The titles of such manuscripts. 

13 (iii) The names of the authors of such 

14 manuscripts. 

15 (iv) For each such manuscript, the 

16 name and issue number or volume number, 

17 as the case may be, of the journal or other 

18 publication in which such manuscript was 

19 published. 

20 (c) RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DATA SHARING BE21 TWEEN DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND DE22 PARTMENT OF DEFENSE.—Not later than one year after 

23 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Department of 

24 Veterans Affairs-Department of Defense Joint Executive 

25 Committee established by section 320(a) of title 38, 


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1 United States Code, shall submit to the Secretary of Vet2 erans Affairs and the Secretary of Defense options and 

3 recommendations for establishment of a program for long4 term cooperation and data sharing between and within the 

5 Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of 

6 Defense to facilitate research on outcomes of military serv7 ice, readjustment after combat deployment, and other top8 ics of importance to the following: 

9 (1) Veterans. 

10 (2) Members of the Armed Forces. 

11 (3) Family members of veterans. 

12 (4) Family members of members of the Armed 

13 Forces. 

14 (5) Members of communities that have a sig15 nificant population of veterans or members of the 

16 Armed Forces. 

Æ 


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