Federally funded research

Federally funded research is research paid for, in whole or in part, by taxpayer dollars collected by the federal government. An example is Richard Lenski's study in which he claimed, without making his data available to the public, that evolution by E. coli bacteria occurred in his laboratory study.

Public Access to Publicly Funded Data

Circular A-110

In 1999, Senator Richard Shelby introduced legislation known as the Shelby Amendment that was designed to require that some researchers make available data paid for by federal taxpayers:

As part of the Fiscal Year (FY) 1999 Omnibus Appropriations Act (P.L. 105-277), Congress included a provision introduced by Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) that for the first time allows the public to obtain federally funded research data collected through grants and agreements with universities and other nonprofit organizations.

The entire text of the Shelby Amendment is as follows:

Provided further, That the Director of OMB amends Section -.36 of OMB Circular A-110 to require Federal awarding agencies to ensure that all data produced under an award will be made available to the public through the procedures established under the Freedom of Information Act: Provided further, That if the agency obtaining the data does so solely at the request of a private party, the agency may authorize a reasonable user fee equaling the incremental cost of obtaining data.

On February 4, 1999, the OMB issued a proposed revision to Circular A-110 in implementing the foregoing law. It was to allow a FOIA request on a federal awarding agency to obtain and provide federally funded published research data. However, this provision would only apply to data underlying published studies that the federal government used in developing a policy or rule.

As further amended in October 1999, which became effective April 17, 2000, Circular A-110 states that:

In addition, in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for research data relating to published research findings produced under an award that were used by the Federal Government in developing an agency action that has the force and effect of law, the Federal awarding agency shall request, and the recipient shall provide, within a reasonable time, the research data so that they can be made available to the public through the procedures established under the FOIA.

The circular is applicable only to data first produced under new or competing continuing grants awarded after April 17, 2000, the regulation's effective date.

Contractual Arguments

A contractual argument for access to underlying data could be based on representations made by journals that present claims to the public. For example, the JNAS asserts that authors in its published articles will make data available to other researchers under certain conditions.