FW: Congressional SubCommittee Action Related to PubSCIENCE

["Donnie Curtis" <dcurtis@admin.unr.edu>]

Here is some more information about the PubSCIENCE crisis from Walt
Warnick, Director of the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical
Information, forwarded with his permission.  Donnie

-----Original Message-----

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development just
issued an important statement regarding PubSCIENCE.  To help in
understanding the statement, please be informed that the budget of the DOE
Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) is provided by a
line item called "Technical Information Management."  This line item is
OSTI's only direct source of funds from Congress, and no other
organization has access to this line item.

"The Committee recommendation for the Technical Information Management
program is $7,870,000, a reduction of $1,100,000 from the budget request
and $730,000 from the enacted level for fiscal year 2001.  Funding for
program support is $1,400,000, and funding for program direction is
$6,470,000.  The Committee is concerned that the Department is duplicating
technical information services that are already available from the private
sector. The Department should carefully review its information services
such as PubSCIENCE to be sure that such efforts remain focused on
appropriate scientific journals and do not compete improperly with similar
services from the private sector."

This House Subcommittee action could well have significant impacts on the
future of PubSCIENCE.

Walter L. "Walt" Warnick, Ph.D.
Director, DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information
http://www.osti.gov

PS: To use PubSCIENCE see http://www.osti.gov/pubscience
For FAQ about PubSCIENCE see http://www.arl.org/info/frn/gov/pubscience.html