Yesterday, President Trump signed into law the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary (OPEN) Government Data Act, a sweeping, government-wide mandate requiring U.S. federal agencies to publish all non-sensitive government information – including federally-funded research – as open data.
“This bill is a huge win for innovation, transparency and openness – and most of all, for taxpayers who fund the data in the first place,” said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.
“It will make information generated by the federal government more accessible and transparent to researchers, entrepreneurs, and others who can use it – and in doing so, will generate new services and products, build businesses and create jobs. It’s exactly what we should be doing in a 21st century economy.”
Specifically, the OPEN Government Data Act, which is included as Title II of the broader Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, requires federal agencies to publish government data in machine-readable and open formats and use open licenses.