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Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research (2020)

Chapter: Chapter 2 - Understanding Essential Requirements

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Understanding Essential Requirements." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25704.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Understanding Essential Requirements." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25704.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Understanding Essential Requirements." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25704.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Understanding Essential Requirements." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Understanding Essential Requirements." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Understanding Essential Requirements." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Understanding Essential Requirements." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Understanding Essential Requirements." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Understanding Essential Requirements." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25704.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 2 - Understanding Essential Requirements." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25704.
×
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CHAPTER 2. Understanding Essential Requirements Introduction This chapter covers the U.S. DOT’s essential requirements for researchers and research institutions requesting and receiving transportation-related federal research funds. Public Access Plan compliance guidance and recommendations are available in the “DOT Public Access” web pages hosted by the National Transportation Library at https://ntl.bts.gov/public-access. The National Transportation Library’s Role The U.S. DOT’s infrastructure builds upon existing research life-cycle tracking arrangements between the TRB Research in Progress (RiP) database, the U.S. DOT Research Hub, the National Transportation Library (NTL) Digital Library, and a new interface with the U.S. DOT Public Data Listing. The U.S. DOT Research Hub (RH) is a publicly available, web-based, searchable database of the department’s research portfolio containing project records that describe the department’s current and past research activities at the project level. When projects are completed, project deliverables (typically technical reports) are deposited into the NTL Digital Library and added as NTL-based URLs to associated project records. 2. E S S E N T IA L R E Q U IR E M E N T S In This Section » Introduction » The National Transportation Library’s Role » The Research Project Life Cycle and Compliance » Essential Requirements » Before, During, and After a Research Project » Research Products » Open Researcher and Contributor ID » Data Management Plan » Consequences of Noncompliance » Public Access Plan Effective Date » Sources of Research Funding » Finding Your Submitted Research Products and Data » Chapter Checklist ? ? ? How to Comply with Public Access: https://ntl.bts.gov/ public-access 7

8 2. Understanding essential reqUirements The Research Project Life Cycle and Compliance Compliance is best understood in the context of a research project’s life cycle. Figure 1 illustrates the U.S. DOT’s conceptualization of the life cycle and notes key points of compliance in the cycle. Some terms and concepts in the figure may be unfamiliar, but they are covered in detail both below and in the chapters of this Guide. Essential Requirements Requirements: Before, During, and After a Research Project Before a Research Project The “Submit Research Proposal” stage of the life cycle embodies activities needed to develop and start a research project, and includes the following: þ Develop a data management plan (DMP) to define what steps will be taken over the course of the project to administer the data and prepare it for eventual public dissemination and long- term preservation. More information on DMPs and their use is presented later in this chapter and in Chapter 8. þ Obtain approval of the DMP from your organization and your funding agency as a component of the research project proposal. See Chapter 8. þ Register an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) for all project investigators and contributors (https://orcid.org/ trademark-and-id-display-guidelines). An ORCID is a unique identifier that is easily registered and supports researchers in receiving proper attribution and credit for their work. More details on ORCID identifiers and their use are presented later in this chapter and in Chapter 4. Checklist: BEFORE the Research Project? ? ? Figure 1. Overview of the Research Process and Public Access Some terms and concepts may be unfamiliar, but they are covered in detail in the chapters of this Guide. Submit Research Proposal Perform Research Report to U.S. DOT Research Results Package Research Results Register ORCID for each researcher. Include and obtain approval of DMP. Follow data management practices in approved DMP. Submit research description & updates to TRB’s Research in Progress (RiP) database. Project records automatically appear in Research Hub. Archive final data set(s). Include ORCID and funding agreement number with data and on tech report documentation page. Submit research results (files or URLs) with ORCID, Research Hub Display ID, and funding agreement number.

9 2. Understanding essential reqUirements þ Be sure to note the RH ID in the RH project record (https:// researchhub.bts.gov/faq). þ Obtain and note the funding agreement number (this number is the sponsoring agency’s contract or project number). During a Research Project Once funding for research has been received and the research is underway, researchers should ensure the following: þ Report your research project to TRB’s RiP database at: http://rip. trb.org. See Chapter 6. þ Update the project record in RiP regularly and consistently for the duration of the project (e.g., if there are any changes to funding amount, project end dates). These records will be automatically updated in the Research Hub. þ Follow data management practices outlined in the DMP. Revise and update the DMP as needed. See Chapter 8. After a Research Project When their research project is complete, researchers should: þ Ensure that the project status is changed in RiP from “Active” to “Completed” within 2 months of completion. þ Make sure that someone retrieves the RH Display IDs for each project record. þ Package and archive data as outlined in the DMP. þ Include ORCID identifiers and funding agreement number(s) on the Technical Report documentation page and in any peer- reviewed publication submissions. Be sure to format ORCID identifiers correctly in your final reports (https://orcid.org/ trademark-and-id-display-guidelines). þ Ensure that all rights under copyright are nonexclusively retained by the U.S. DOT and that the terms and conditions of publication to peer-reviewed journals and other outlets do not impair the obligation of the authors to comply with the plan. See Chapter 6. þ Send one email to the U.S. DOT Research Hub (Research.Hub@ dot.gov, NTL (NTLDigitalSubmissions@dot.gov), and TRB (TRIS- TRB@nas.edu): þ Final Report URL(s) or PDFs for any resulting publications. þ URL(s) and associated descriptive metadata for any final data sets arising from the research project. þ The funding agreement number of the project. þ The RH Display ID for the project. Checklist: DURING the Research Project? ? ? Checklist: AFTER the Research Project? ? ? (cont’d) BEFORE ? ? ?

10 2. Understanding essential reqUirements þ ORCID identifiers (unique researcher IDs) for all publication author(s). þ Any documented project outputs or outcomes resulting from the research project. þ Final reports and data set URLs will be appended to your project records in the U.S. DOT Research Hub. Requirements: Research Products The U.S. DOT’s Public Access Plan is focused on two types of research products: (1) reports and publications and (2) data. Research Reports and Publications The U.S. DOT defines research publications to include • Any final peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication; • Any intramural technical or final reports; • Any scientific research project’s written deliverable (e.g., technical/final reports) that arises from extramural research funded, either fully or partially, by federal funds awarded through a U.S. DOT–managed contract, grant, or other agreement; • Written deliverables published by the U.S. DOT, with no embargo; and • Written deliverables published externally by U.S. DOT scientists or extramural U.S. DOT–funded scientists, with embargo. Research Reports In the field of transportation, final project and technical reports will represent a larger percentage of research products than formal peer- reviewed research articles and publications. Final and technical reports may be more challenging to track because they may be less easily discovered than journal publications. The researcher is the key actor in this process, since often only she/he knows when the final report or technical report has been submitted to the funding agency. It is important for researchers and their research organizations to establish internal processes for ensuring that research projects are known, that project status is tracked, and that final and technical reports are identified and submitted to the TRB and NTL repositories. All reports must be submitted to these repositories within 12 months of issuance. ? ? ? Embargo is a time-limited restriction on publication. (cont’d) AFTER ? ? ?

11 2. Understanding essential reqUirements Requirements for Submission of Final Research Publications All final peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication; intramural, technical, or final reports; and any scientific research project written deliverables (e.g., technical and final reports) produced under a U.S. DOT contract or grant must be submitted to NTL under a nonexclusive license agreement. These publications will be made publicly available after an embargo period of 12 months following publication. Research Data As defined in the U.S. DOT’s Public Access Plan, research data are all scientific data collected through research projects funded, either fully or partially, by federal funds awarded through a U.S. DOT contract, grant, or other agreement or collected by U.S. DOT employees. Not all data are eligible for public access, though. Research data that are covered under the Public Access Plan are those data that were used to support the research conclusions in a publication or a research report. The public access policy does NOT include laboratory notebooks, preliminary analyses, drafts of scientific papers, plans for future research, peer review reports, communications with colleagues, or physical objects such as laboratory specimens. Requirements for Identifying and Preserving Final Research Data Researchers are encouraged to use publicly accessible repositories for the deposit of their data, where appropriate and available. Currently, the list of recommended repositories on the NTL website includes • Dryad (http://www.datadryad.org), • Harvard Dataverse (https://dataverse.harvard.edu), • Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/), • Odum Institute Data Archive (http://www.odum.unc.edu/odum/), and • Zenodo (http://zenodo.org) As this is an evolving field and practice, the list of conforming repositories will be updated periodically. Researchers may use the Registry of Research Data Repositories’ searchable listing of data repositories (https://www.re3data.org/) to locate potential archiving options for their data. If their organization includes a library, then a librarian may be available to assist researchers in identifying repositories that meet their specific data needs. ? ? ? Repositories include: datadryad.org dataverse.harvard.edu icpsr.umich.edu odum.unc.edu zenodo.org ? ? ? Locate potential data archiving options https://www.re3data.org Researchers may use the Registry of Research Data Repositories’ searchable listing of data repositories (https://www.re3data.org/) to locate potential archiving options for their data.

12 2. Understanding essential reqUirements If state DOTs choose to use another repository, that repository should be able to do the following: • Provide unique permanent identifiers for digital data sets and the standards that are defined for managing identifiers. • Support interaction between the awardee(s), the data repository, and the state DOT or U.S. DOT grant manager to enable all parties to verify that • Data meet minimum quality standards, • Data are appropriately evaluated and secured to prevent disclosure of personally identifiable information, • Proprietary interests and confidentiality are protected, • Intellectual property rights are respected, and • Data are licensed in a manner encouraging access, availability, and reuse. • Support long-term access and preservation of the research data. There may be situations in which multiple repositories would potentially be suitable for meeting U.S. DOT requirements. In this case, the researcher may need to do some additional investigation to assess the capabilities and services of the repositories and supporting organizations to determine which is a best fit for her/his needs. Requirements for Describing Preserved Research Data The U.S. DOT requires Project Open Data metadata standards for scientific data. According to the National Information Standards Organization, metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource.1 Archives not operated by the U.S. DOT are required to be able to generate common core and extensible metadata so that the U.S. DOT can harvest inventory records for inclusion in its own public data listing and enterprise data inventory. Metadata is discussed in detail in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. Requirements: Open Researcher and Contributor ID The Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) provides each researcher a persistent digital identifier that supports linkages between researchers, their work, and their professional activities. The U.S. DOT Public Access Plan requires that researchers obtain and use their ORCID identifiers when submitting research funding proposals. ? ? ? Project Open Data Metadata Schema: https://project- open-data.cio.gov/ ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a nonproprietary alphanumeric code to uniquely identify scientific and other academic authors and contributors. ? ? ?

13 2. Understanding essential reqUirements Requirements: Data Management Plan Researchers and research organizations (e.g., state DOTs) applying for research funds from the U.S. DOT under contract, grant, or cooperative agreement are required to submit a data management plan (DMP) for approval. The DMP must identify a repository for preserving data that is accessible by the NTL and must include the following elements: þ Project description; þ Explanation of the data to be collected, including collection methods, formats, metadata, and other standards followed; þ Short-term storage and access plan during the project; þ Treatment of any legal issues, including intellectual property and personally identifiable information; þ Preservation and archiving strategies after the project; þ Unique permanent identifiers for all publications (Digital Object Identifier, or DOI), authors (ORCID identifiers), and data sets for the linking and correlation of authors and relevant data. Data management plans are covered in detail in Chapter 8. Consequences of Noncompliance State DOTs and other organizations will be held accountable for the compliance of all of their researchers. If a researcher in the Planning Department is not in compliance with the minimum requirements, noncompliance will also affect the funding proposal of a researcher from the Bridge Administration in the same DOT. Organizations with researchers seeking funding from any of the sources listed on the next page should ensure that they have tracked and accounted for compliance across the board. Public Access Plan Effective Date The U.S. DOT’s Public Access Plan does not apply to written deliverables or data submitted for publication prior to the plan’s effective date or to digital data generated prior to the plan’s effective date. The effective date can be no sooner than the publication date of the department’s final plan (i.e., December 16, 2015). Checklist: Data management plan? ? ?

14 2. Understanding essential reqUirements Sources of Research Funding Primary Funding Sources U.S. DOT funding sources may include, but are not limited to, the following agencies: • Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), • Federal Transit Administration (FTA), • Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), • Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST), • Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), • Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), • Federal Maritime Administration (MARAD), and • Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). It is important to note that, while these sources of research funding are included under the Public Access Plan, not all funding types from these sources are currently included in the essential requirements to participate. In particular, at this time, State Planning and Research (SP&R) funds are not covered under the essential requirements unless there are matching University Transportation Center funds. SP&R funds may be eligible at a later time, so it is important to regularly check the Public Access Plan website for updates in what is covered and what constitutes essential compliance. Funding Sources Beyond the U.S. DOT While transportation-related research is primarily funded by the U.S. DOT, it is also funded by other federal departments and agencies. Each department or agency will have its own requirements and processes for making research products available that will need to be followed by the researchers and organization receiving the award. Transportation-related research is also supported by, but not limited to, the following agencies: • Department of Energy (DOE), • National Science Foundation (NSF), • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), • Department of Homeland Security (DHS), • Department of Agriculture (DOA), • Department of Education (DOE), and • National Institutes of Health (NIH). ? ? ? It is important to regularly check the DOT Public Access guidance web pages for updates on what research is covered and what constitutes compliance. https://ntl.bts.gov/ public-access

15 2. Understanding essential reqUirements Finding Your Submitted Research Products and Data NTL currently serves as the permanent archive of technical reports. Links for technical reports listed in the Research Hub are provided for copies deposited in NTL’s archive. NTL will also provide a searchable database of DMPs submitted as a part of the U.S. DOT’s Public Access Plan requirements. Reports housed or accessible through NTL are available without charge. The U.S. DOT Public Data Listing will be expanded to add descriptions of and links to data sets resulting from scientific research. This listing will serve as a single access point for the U.S. DOT’s intramural and extramural public data sets, which are also reported to data.gov. Once the Public Access Plan is implemented, the Research Hub will serve as the linking mechanism for scientific publications and their underlying research data by requiring that links for digital data sets (as referenced in the U.S. DOT Public Data Listing) are submitted along with other project deliverables as part of the project close-out process. This will create one publicly accessible record for each completed research project that contains the research project description and links to any associated publications and data. Chapter Checklist From this chapter you should be able to þ Understand what research is eligible under the policy. þ Know how to track and identify your funded research projects. þ Understand what to do when in the research project life cycle. þ Provide guidance to researchers in registering ORCID identifiers. þ Know when and how to submit a data management plan. þ Know where to submit your eligible research publications. þ Know where to submit your eligible research reports. þ Know where and how to preserve your eligible research data. þ Know how to provide a unique permanent identifier. Endnotes 1 National Information Standards Organization (NISO). Understanding Metadata. Bethesda, MD: NISO Press, 2004, p. 1. http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf.

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The U.S. Department of Transportation has essential requirements for researchers and research institutions requesting and receiving transportation-related federal research funds. The U.S. DOT strives to make it easier to publish and communicate scientific knowledge. It is a long-range vision which goes beyond the requirements of the U.S. DOT’s Public Access Plan.

The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 936: Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research is designed to help state DOTs, as well as other organizations that do transportation research, better understand and consider how they will comply with the U.S. DOT policy.

The guide is accompanied by NCHRP Web-Only Document 270: Developing a Guide to Ensuring Access to the Publications and Data of Federally Funded Transportation Research.

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