(a) The purpose of this regulation is to facilitate public access to the vast amount of scientific, technical and engineering information (STEI) that is produced by and for federal agencies.

(b) This regulation provides a variety of methods for federal agencies to adopt to ensure the timely transfer to the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) of all unclassified STEI that is available for public dissemination and that results from federal funding. It is issued pursuant to the authority contained in Section 108 of the American Technology Preeminence Act (Pub. L. 102-245).

Agency means a federal agency as that term is defined in Section 4 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, as amended (15 U.S.C. 3703(8));

Director means the Director of the National Technical Information Service.

Federally funded refers to STEI which results from federal research and development activities funded in whole or in part with federal funds, whether performed by the agency itself or by contractors, grantees, cooperative research partners, joint venture partners, or under any similar arrangement involving federal funds.

Final when used to describe an STEI product means a product that the originating agency or contractor/grantee thereof intends for public dissemination and may exclude interim status reports routinely furnished to agencies by contractors and grantees for monitoring and other internal purposes and which are not intended for public dissemination.

Product includes, but is not limited to, any report, manual, standard, specification, book, paper, chart, map, graph, data collection, data file, data compilation, software, audio/video production, technology application assessment generated pursuant to Section 11(c) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3710(c)), as well as materials pertaining to training technology and other federally owned or originated technologies, and applies to items produced in-house or outside the agency through the Government Printing Office, its contractors, Federal Prison Industries or any other producer, provided that such material is intended by the agency for public dissemination.

Scientific, technical and engineering information means—

(1) Basic and applied research that results from the efforts of scientists and engineers in any medium (including new theory and information obtained from experimentation, observation, instrumentation or computation in the form of text, numeric data or images), and

(2) Information that bears on business and industry generally, such as economic information, market information and related information, if the agency determines such information would be of value to consumers of the information described in paragraph (1) of this definition.

Summary means information relating to an ongoing research project likely to result in a final product.

Unless an exception applies under section 1180.7, each federal agency shall, within the time period specified in this regulation, transfer to NTIS—

(a) At least one copy of every final STEI product resulting from the agency's federally funded research and development activities, and

(b) A summary of the agency's new and on-going research that is likely to result in a final STEI product

(a) Every final STEI product or summary shall, to the extent practicable, be prepared in a format that is consistent with one of the various formats found in NTIS guidelines. In addition, every such product shall—

(1) Be accompanied by a report documentation page (SF 298) or its electronic equivalent;

(2) Be in a form capable of high quality reproduction appropriate to the medium;

(3) In the case of software, be accompanied by relevant documentation, such as operating manuals, but not including printed source code; and

(4) In the case of a product not printed by the Government Printing Office, be accompanied by a statement as to whether the product has been made available for depository distribution by the Government Printing Office.

(b) Each federal agency shall transfer or have transferred to NTIS those STEI products funded by it that are protected by copyright only if there is a license reserved to the Government. In such cases, the agency shall inform NTIS of the terms of the license. Suggested language for inclusion in agency funding instruments is contained in the Appendix to this part.

(c) If an agency has generated or funded an STEI product which should be available for public dissemination but has embedded within it any copyrighted material, the designated liaison appointed pursuant to § 1180.8 should work with NTIS to determine if it would be appropriate to seek a license from the copyright holder in order to make the STEI product available.

A single copy of a final product or summary described in § 1180.3 must be transferred to NTIS within fifteen days of the date it is first made available for public dissemination through any distribution channel, and, whenever practical, as soon as it has been approved by the agency for final printing or other reproduction, unless the agency and the Director have otherwise agreed.

Unless the agency determines that such action would not be feasible, it shall make appropriate arrangements to enable NTIS, from time to time and at NTIS's own discretion and expense, to ride agency printing and other reproduction orders.

(a) An agency shall not be required to take any further action to submit a copy of a final STEI product to NTIS or one of its affiliates if—

(1) It has designated NTIS to receive a single copy of each STEI product once it has been produced, has made the arrangements specified in § 1180.6, if appropriate, and has made arrangements to receive appropriate certification from a contractor, grantee or other external performer of federally funded research that a copy has been sent to NTIS or one of its affiliates within the appropriate time period pursuant to obligations incurred in the applicable funding agreement (see Appendix to this part) or pursuant to such other system as the agency has established to ensure timely transfer;

(2) The agency and the Director have executed an appropriate agreement or memorandum of understanding establishing an alternative system for compliance; or

(3) The federally funded STEI is protected by copyright for which no license has been reserved to the Government that would allow distribution by NTIS;

(4) The product is an agency generated article that is published in a privately produced journal; or

(5) The agency and the Director, pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section, have agreed that the transfer of a product otherwise covered by these regulations would not be appropriate.

(b) An agency and the Director shall be deemed to be in agreement within the meaning of paragraph (a)(3) of this section if the Director has not objected within 30 days to an agency's written notification of its determination that timely transfer of a product or category of products would not be appropriate under section 108 of the American Technology Preeminence Act. Examples of inappropriate transfers include:

(1) Transfers that could cause significant harm to an agency's existing dissemination program that is operating on a cost recovery basis, is operating in compliance with the policies described by OMB Circular A-130, and for which special arrangements that would permit supplemental distribution by NTIS cannot be negotiated.

(2) Federally funded STEI that has received, or is likely to receive, widespread distribution to most potential users at no charge.

The head of each agency shall appoint or designate an officer or employee to serve as the STEI Liaison. The Liaison shall, to the extent authorized by the head of the agency—

(1) In cooperation with the Director, determine what products or summaries produced by the Government shall be transferred to NTIS on an ongoing basis;

(2) Determine which funding agreements are to require contractors and grantees to submit products directly to NTIS (for which purpose the Appendix to this part contains suggested language that agencies may wish to include in applicable funding instruments);

(3) Appoint additional liaison officers for major units or components of an agency if the Director and Liaison officer agree this would further the purposes of this regulation; and

(4) Enter into appropriate agreements with the Director and perform any other agency responsibilities described in this regulation.

(a) The Director may recognize any federal agency or component of an agency as an affiliate for the purpose of receiving, on behalf of NTIS, any STEI product that is required to be transferred under these regulations if NTIS has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Liaison Officer under which the recognized affiliate agrees to the ongoing transfer of all STEI products to NTIS in a timely manner and otherwise agrees to assume the role of an affiliate.

(b) A transfer by an agency to an approved affiliate shall be deemed a transfer to NTIS within the meaning of these regulations.

A product, or category of product, will normally be accepted and maintained as part of NTIS' permanent repository as a service to agencies unless the Director advises the Liaison Officer that it has not been so accepted. In general, transferred products will not be accepted if they have not been properly prepared as required by Section 1180.4 or if NTIS believes that the cost of adding them to the repository will significantly exceed anticipated benefits to the public as measured by foreseeable demand. A product announced by NTIS as being available from NTIS shall be deemed to have been accepted by NTIS as part of its permanent repository.

(a) Nothing in these regulations shall be deemed to exempt an agency from any of the following requirements:

(1) Compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552);

(2) Compliance with any requirements to protect material that contains classified national security information;

(3) Compliance with requirements to protect personal or other information that may not be disclosed without appropriate authority under applicable laws and procedures, such as the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a);

(4) Compliance with laws and regulations applicable to federal records under Title 44 of the United States Code or regulations issued by the National Archives and Records Administration (36 CFR, chapter XII);

(5) Compliance with requirements to distribute publications through the Depository Library Program either directly or through NTIS as prescribed in subsection (d) of this section; and

(6) In the case of an agency that is also a component of an agency as that term is defined in § 1180.2, compliance with all applicable requirements and procedures of the parent agency regarding these regulations.

(b) Nothing in these regulations shall be deemed to require an agency to take any of the following actions:

(1) To use NTIS as an agency's exclusive distribution channel;

(2) To transfer to NTIS information on matters that are specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive Order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and are in fact properly classified pursuant to such Executive Order; or

(3) to transfer, produce, or disseminate any other information that is required by law to be withheld, which the agency is authorized to withhold, or which is not intended by the agency for public dissemination.

(c) No contractor, grantee, or employee of a Federal agency shall submit a final STEI product directly to NTIS unless authorized to do so by the Liaison or the Liaison's designate, which authorization may be provided in an approved funding agreement (see Appendix to this part).

(d) In order to facilitate cooperation between agencies and the Depository Libraries—

(1) NTIS will, as soon as possible, but not later than six months from the effective date of these regulations, provide each Depository Library at no charge, online access to a current list of all final STEI products provided to NTIS under these regulations that have been entered into the NTIS system.

(2) The online system described in subsection (d) of this section will include an option that will allow each Depository Library thirty days from the date a product is added to the online listing to identify a product that it wishes to receive and that has not otherwise been made available to it.

(3) NTIS will accumulate these requests and, within a reasonable time, transfer them to the originating agency for fulfillment of each of the identified products.

(4) In lieu of the procedures described in paragraph (d)(3) of this section, NTIS will offer to enter into simple cost recovery arrangements with the originating agency to duplicate and ship the identified products to the requesting Libraries in the format that the agency determines to be most cost effective, including microfiche, paper, diskette, or disc.

(5) NTIS will also establish, as soon as practical, a system of full text online access to final STEI products for the Depository Libraries at no charge to them. Those final STEI products provided to NTIS in a format prescribed by NTIS as suitable for online dissemination under this system will be made available to the Libraries at no charge to the originating agency, will be maintained online indefinitely, and will be available to the Libraries without regard to the thirty day selection time limit described in paragraph (d)(2) of this section.

(6) The services in this paragraph will be provided to Depository Libraries on the condition that they agree to ensure that online access to the NTIS listing described in paragraph (d)(1) of this section is restricted to the Library and its staff and that the full text products provided online pursuant to paragraph (d)(5) of this section are available only to the community served by that Library.

Agencies electing to allow for their contractors, grantees, etc. to submit final products directly to NTIS are encouraged to employ a provision similar to the following in the applicable funding agreement:

“The (contractor)/(recipient) shall certify to the (contracting) (grants) officer—

“(1) a copy of all scientific, technical and engineering information products created or finalized in whole or in part with the funds requested has been or will be transferred to NTIS or a recognized affiliate (at the same time that it is provided to the sponsoring agency) (when the agency has determined that the product is approved for public dissemination) but no later than fifteen days after it is first made available for public dissemination through any other distribution channel, and

“(2) NTIS, or a recognized affiliate, has been advised as to whether the product is protected by copyright and, if so, a copy of the terms of any licenses reserved to the Government has been sent to NTIS, along with a copy of the SF 298.”