Office of Scientific and Technical Information

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), a unit of the Office of Science, fulfills agency-wide responsibilities to collect, preserve, and disseminate both unclassified and classified scientific and technical information (STI) emanating from DOE-funded research and development (RD) activities at DOE national laboratories and facilities and at universities and other institutions nationwide. OSTI provides access to DOE STI through a suite of web-based, searchable discovery tools and through other commonly used search engines, offering ever-expanding sources of RD information to DOE, the research community, and the science-attentive public. Established in 1947, OSTI grew out of the post-World War II initiative to make the scientific research of the Manhattan Project as freely available to the public as possible, and its corporate function is authorized in several laws covering DOE and its predecessor agencies. A DOE directive (DOE O 241.1B) designates OSTI as the office responsible for DOE STI management and calls on DOE offices, contractors, and grantees to help “ensure that STI is appropriately managed as part of the DOE mission to enable the advancement of scientific knowledge and technical innovation.”