Results from federally funded research to become more accessible

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) published its plan Friday to more efficiently track the life cycle of research projects. 

The plan, entitled "Public Access Plan: Increasing Access to Federally Funded Research Results," aims to create a framework that will improve the way research life cycles are tracked, beginning at the project level.

The new tracking method will follow research from its beginning to its project deliverable submission. It will continue through the process of applying the research and also deploy the outputs and products produced by the research.

The goal of the plan is to extend and standardize the research and development programs -- whether they are extramural or intramural -- throughout the USDOT. 

In order to guarantee that the public will have access to the information, the plan outlines objectives for the research and development programs under the management of USDOT. The public will gain access to the USDOT’s Publications and Digital Data Sets for greater transparency.

Currently, the USDOT gives public access to its extramural as well as mural research programs while the research is in progress as well as the research’s technical reports. There are also multiple final publications, such as the Transportation Research Board, which also give access to research results.