OSA system tracks government-funded research

The Optical Society (OSA) of Washington has implemented a service that enables easy reporting of funding sources for scholarly research articles published in its peer-reviewed journals. The FundRef service from CrossRef enables authors to specify the funding agency of their research and allows agencies to track adherence to their policies.

Publishers also can analyze the sources of funding for their published content. OSA implemented the service in response to stakeholders needing access to this data and as part of its participation in CHORUS, a large group of scientific, technical and medical publishers. The group works to provide federal agencies with a cost-free solution to comply with the US Office of Science & Technology Policy open-access guidelines issued earlier this year.

The registry includes 4000 standardized funder names as well as tools for depositing and sharing funding information. Authors can select the corresponding capital agency and provide grant numbers when submitting their papers to OSA journals. Once published, the paper’s funding information is indexed into the FundRef system and becomes searchable through CrossRef.