Office of Scientific and Technical Information
The Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) is a component of the Office of Science within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The Energy Policy Act PL 109-58, Section 982, called out the responsibility of OSTI: “The Secretary, through the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, shall maintain with the Department publicly available collections of scientific and technical information resulting from research, development, demonstration, and commercial applications activities supported by the Department.”
Resources
OSTI provides access to energy, science, and technology information through publicly available web-based systems, with supporting tools and technologies to enable information search, retrieval and re-use.
Science information resources freely available for public use
- SciTech Connect is the primary repository for DOE science, technology, and engineering research information, plus extensive coverage of energy-related STI of interest to DOE;
- The DOE Public Access Gateway for Energy and ScienceBeta is a portal to journal articles and accepted manuscripts resulting from DOE-funded research that will be made publicly available at no cost not more than twelve months after publication;
- ScienceCinema is a collection of multimedia videos highlighting DOE’s scientific research;
- DOE R&D Accomplishments highlights outcomes of past DOE research and development which have had significant economic impact, improved people’s lives, or been widely recognized as a remarkable advance in science.
- DOE Data Explorer searches collections of DOE scientific research data, such as computer simulations, figures and plots, interactive maps, multimedia, numeric files and scientific images.
- DOepatents provides a searchable database of patent information resulting from DOE-sponsored research and development.
- Energy Science and Technology Software Center provides a searchable database of DOE's centralized software management facility.
- Science Conference Proceedings provides single-query searching of conference papers and proceedings on multiple websites and databases.
- EDUconnections, highlights university research departments and libraries across the nation to increase awareness of DOE's valuable scientific and technical information.
- EnergyFiles, the Energy Science and Technology Virtual Library, provides single-query access to over 500 databases and websites containing information and resources pertaining to science and technology of interest to DOE, with an emphasis on the physical sciences.
- Science.gov OSTI hosts this USA.gov science portal in collaboration with 17 organizations within 13 Federal science agencies. These agencies are also members of CENDI, a cooperative group of scientific and technical information (STI) managers from the 13 federal agencies and programs. Science.gov provides a gateway to over 2,100 websites and offers deep web searching of more than 50 databases containing science information and R&D results.
- WorldWideScience.org provides a global science gateway through a multilateral partnership to enable federated searching of national and international scientific databases and portals.
OSTI's entire line of electronic products may be accessed through its home page, where users may search multiple databases from the Science Accelerator with one query.
Related legislation
- 1946 – Atomic Energy Act PL 79-585 (created the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission)
- 1954 – Atomic Energy Act Amendments PL 83-703
- 1974 – Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 PL 93-438 (Split the AEC into the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission)
- 1977 – Department of Energy Organization Act PL 95-91 (Dismantled ERDA and replaced it with the Department of Energy)
- 2005 – Energy Policy Act PL 109-58
- 2007 – America COMPETES Act PL 110-69
