Scientific and Technical Information (STI)

Information products deemed by the originator to be useful beyond the originating site (i.e., intended to be published or disseminated), in any format or medium, which contain findings and technological innovations resulting from research and development (R&D) efforts and scientific and technological work of scientists, researchers, and engineers, whether Federal employee, contractor, or financial assistance recipient. STI also conveys the results of demonstration and commercial application activities as well as experiments, observations, simulations, studies, and analyses.

Scientific findings are communicated through various media – e.g., textual, multimedia, audiovisual, and digital - and are produced in a range of products such as technical reports, scientific/technical conference papers and presentations, theses and dissertations, scientific and technical computer software, journal articles, workshop reports, program documents, patents, publicly available scientific research datasets, or other forms of STI. (See Attachment 3, STI Product Types Made Available Through DOE STI Program.) STI may be classified, Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information (UCNI), controlled unclassified information (CUI), or unclassified with no access restrictions. DOE-funded STI originates primarily from research and other activities performed by site/facility management contractors, direct DOE-executed prime procurements, DOE-operated research activities, and financial assistance recipients, in addition to DOE employees.

Information products deemed by the originator to be useful beyond the originating site (i.e., intended to be published or disseminated), in any format or medium, which contain findings and technological innovations resulting from research and development (R&D) efforts and scientific and technological work of scientists, researchers, and engineers. Scientific findings are communicated through various media – e.g., textual, multimedia, audiovisual, and digital – are produced in a range of products such as technical reports, scientific/technical conference papers, journal articles, workshop reports, program documents, invention reports, patent applications, patents, publicly available scientific research datasets, or other forms of scientific and technical information.

STI are the results of knowledge arising from the R&D and/or related activities (see 15., definition for R&D). STI is produced by those funded or supported by DOE, including federal researchers.

There are different types of STI. The R&D and/or related activities may produce more than one type. STI is communicated through various media (e.g., textual, multimedia, audiovisual, and digital) and include scientific/technical reports; scientific/technical conference papers, presentations, posters, or proceedings; journal articles/accepted manuscripts; scientific data; scientific software; books/monographs; thesis/dissertations; and technical workshop reports. STI does not include information related to the R&D such as preliminary analyses, drafts of scientific papers, plans for future research, peer reviews, communications with colleagues, laboratory samples, performance (management and oversight), or financial monitoring and reporting. (See Attachment 3, Identifying STI).

For purposes of STI identification and collection, the DOE award provides DOE’s rights to STI and identifies any necessary markings/controls for submitting the STI to OSTI. The access controls for STI may include unclassified, Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) (e.g., export controlled, Protected, e.g., special statutes with limited protections), Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information (UCNI), or classified. STI will be managed and disseminated based on the access control for the STI (e.g., if a final technical report is submitted as "protected" because its STI is protected for five years based on a special statute, it will not be disseminated publicly before its data protection expires).