Newsletter for Office of Scientific and Technical Information

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OSTI has been making government R&D results open and transparent since 1947

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OSTI is the DOE office that collects, preserves, and disseminates DOE-sponsored R&D results. We hope this newsletter broadens public understanding of who we are and how best to use our products and services.

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Issue Contents

October/November 2012

OSTI Search Products


Search across DOE science
information collections


Find U.S. government R&D results


Access global science information

Science.gov, Now with Multimedia, New Search Features

Spanish Version Debuted

Science.gov, the gateway to U.S. federal science hosted by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), now includes multimedia content and additional features, including an updated interface with enhanced navigation to help users find the science information they need. For the first time, R&D video from the DOE ScienceCinema is available as well as video from MedlinePLUS, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Images from the Library of Congress and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been added to the image search which is now integrated under a new multimedia tab on the results page. Search enhancements include visual representations of topical information in an easy-to-use touch and dial format.

In addition, a Spanish version of the site has been launched. Ciencia.Science.gov provides the same breadth and depth in scientific search as does Science.gov, covering over 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information. This includes free access to research and development results from 17 organizations within 13 federal science agencies, and more than 55 scientific databases and 2,100 selected scientific websites. Integrating Microsoft’s Translator, Spanish-language queries to Science.gov initiate searches of U.S. databases and websites with results appearing in Spanish.

Science-gov includes key DOE research and development (R&D) databases of full-text documents, citations, patents, e-prints, accomplishments, multimedia, data, software and more, all covered in the DOE Science Accelerator.  OSTI conceived and helped launched Science.gov in December 2002 to get DOE R&D results out to the scientific community and beyond – and to get the community’s results into DOE. Traffic to the site has grown enormously over the past 10 years; while there were some 750,000 Science.gov page requests in its first year, these grew to more than 34,000,000 in the 2012 fiscal year that ended September 30. Read more.

The Manhattan Project: A 70th Anniversary Observance

We are marking the Manhattan Project’s 70th anniversary with a series of articles posted on the OSTI website. OSTI grew out of the post-World War II initiative to make the scientific research of the Manhattan Project as freely available to the public as possible.

One month following the August 13, 1942 establishment of The Manhattan Engineer District, the Army appointed Leslie R. Groves to head the top-secret program. In 1945, General Groves mandated that all classified and unclassified information related to the development of the atomic bomb be brought together into one central file. Thus, in 1947, the office now known as OSTI became home to one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of energy-related information, with separate operations for classified information.

Today, OSTI’s collection of DOE R&D Accomplishments showcases remarkable advances in science. A section about the Manhattan Project includes information about the Manhattan Project sites and their contributions, key events and scientists.

Exploring DOE Data Treasure

DDE

What Is a DOI?

A DOI, or digital object identifier, is a permanent, electronic identification assigned to individual documents or datasets. This gives the content more stable linking, and aids in citation, discovery and retrieval of R&D results and scholarly publications. When available, DOIs are added to records in OSTI databases for journal articles, conference papers, theses and dissertations, books, book chapters, and technical reports.

There are databases, and then there are treasure maps. The DOE Data Explorer (DDE) merges the two concepts into a product offering the best of both. DDE’s database provides the features needed for simple retrieval or advanced searching. The treasure map aspect comes from DDE’s content, which links you to collections of data and non-text information wherever those collections reside. (Read more at the OSTIblog.)

Instead of sailing the seven seas, you can browse DDE’s seven types of content. Choose “Browse by Content Type” from the drop down menu on the DDE homepage and hit the “Submit” button. Each one of the seven categories shown on the results page will open a list of every collection tagged in DDE with that particular type of content. Or, select “DOE Data Centers” on DDE’S menu bar and try some of the highly specialized interfaces that will help you dig deeper. Search the database by subject categories or visit some of the hundreds of organizations listed in DDE citations as partners and collaborators. Pick up the widget for your web page. However you choose to follow the treasure map of the DOE Data Explorer, you’re almost certain to find new paths you’ve never followed before, new resources you haven’t used before, and the prize of information you’ll want to bookmark for frequent return. So follow the “Browse” links and explore the rich realm of DOE’s data and non-text information at the DOE Data Explorer.

 

Search Tip

Searching Authors

Authors of technical reports are often listed with only last name and initials. This means that if you search using an author’s first and last name, you may miss important publications that don’t use the full first name. Help for this can be found when searching the DOE Information Bridge and Energy Citations Database by using Author Select, found on the Fielded Search page. Choose the “Select” button next to the Creator/Author search box. Entering the author’s last name and first initial will allow you to browse and select the variations of the author’s name that you want to search.

DOE Programs Designate Technical Information Officers for DOE Scientific and Technical Information Program

Thanks to the seven Department of Energy program offices that have newly designated representatives to serve as technical information officers (TIOs) in the DOE Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP). This development broadens current Departmental representation in STIP and will help bolster the availability of DOE research and development results and other forms of scientific and technical information (STI).

Under the DOE STIP, OSTI and designated scientific and technical information (STI) stakeholders from across the DOE complex work together to increase the availability and transparency of various types of STI, using best practices, while ensuring coordination of related policy and communication of new developments impacting STI management.

DOE Order 241.1B, the directive governing STI management that was revised in December 2010, reiterated the call for Departmental elements that fund or set policies affecting STI to appoint formal STI points of contact (or TIOs) to participate in the DOE STIP with OSTI, TIOs at field offices, and STI managers at national laboratories.

OSTI Director Walt Warnick held a series of meetings earlier this year with program offices regarding STIP, and subsequently seven offices helpfully have named TIOs: Advanced Research Projects – Energy (AR), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EE), Office of Environmental Management (EM), Office of Fossil Energy (FE), Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Office of Electricity and Energy Reliability (OE) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NA).  For more information, see a list of the program office STIP TIOs (and field office TIOs and lab STI managers).

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Meet Associate Director Brian Hitson

Brian Hitson, OSTI Associate Director

Brian Hitson is the DOE OSTI Associate Director for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI). His duties include administrative and financial management, classified information activities, the digitization and preservation of a 1.2 million scientific document repository, cost-reimbursable work supporting DOE and other customers, and international information exchange programs. Brian has led OSTI’s involvement in public-private partnerships, including the launch of the OSTI multimedia product ScienceCinema. He played a key role in the development of WorldWideScience.org and in the establishment of the WorldWideScience Alliance. Brian represents the United States and DOE in the International Energy Agency's Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDE) and the International Atomic Energy Agency's International Nuclear Information System (INIS). He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and a Master's in Business Administration, both from the University of Tennessee.

Statistically Speaking:  OSTI by the Numbers

Most Viewed Documents
by Subject Category

  • The DOE Information Bridge now has over 300,000 full-text DOE sponsored scientific and technical (STI) reports. While most of these are post-1991, there are over 84,000 reports published prior to 1990, including reports from DOE predecessor agencies.
  • The Energy Citations Database contains over 2.4 million citations and they are not just technical reports. ECD has over 1.4 million journal articles, including 344,000 articles with DOIs. ECD contains STI from DOE and DOE predecessor agencies, plus energy-related publications of interest to DOE.
  • DOepatents has over 27,000 patents resulting from DOE-sponsored research and development.
  • The E-Print Network searches over 5.5 million e-prints, over 35,000 websites, over 3,100 scholarly societies, and over 50 databases in basic and applied sciences.
  • The Energy Science and Technology Software Center (ESTSC)distributes over 1,300 scientific and technical software packages developed by DOE contractors, national laboratories, and other facilities.
  • ScienceCinema has over 2,600 science and technology related videos for your viewing pleasure, highlighting leading-edge research from the U.S. Department of Energy as well as the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
  • DOE R&D Accomplishments has 450 specially-selected documents dealing with accomplishments that have had significant economic impact, have improved people’s lives, or have been widely recognized as a remarkable advance in science. There are also 95 feature pages, 75 of which provide information about Nobel-winning researchers associated with DOE or DOE predecessors.
  • Science Conference Proceedings provides access to science and technology conference proceedings and conference papers from 16 scholarly societies, institutes and agencies.
  • Science.gov searches 55 databases and over 2100 selected websites from 13 federal science agencies, offering 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information.
  • WorldWideScience.org lets you search 83 collections from over 70 countries in 9 different languages. WWS is a global science gateway comprised of national and international scientific databases and portals.

DOE Science Showcase – Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Observations of the universe, combined with Einstein’s theory of general relativity, indicate that most of the universe consists of entities very different from the matter and energy long familiar to us. These previously unknown entities are beginning to be explored on several fronts, many through Department of Energy sponsorship. Find DOE R&D and read more at the DOE Science Showcase.

 

 

OSTI Mission: To advance science and sustain technological creativity by making R&D findings available
and useful to Department of Energy (DOE) researchers and the public.

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