NAS President's Statement on FOIA, > FOIA

[rkathren@tricity.WSU.edu (Ron L. Kathren)]

The policy at the U.S Transuranium and Uranium Registries, a federally
funded grant research program, is to make our data available in a timely
manner.   Recent data are thus available via our web site in downloadable
format (www.ustur.WSU.edu); earlier data are available via the CEDR data
base ot have been published in hard copy documents -- eg annual reports,
peer reviewed publications -- single copies of which are made available
without charge upon request so long as supplies last (we do run out of
certain poplular publications).  Moreover, we will discuss our research
findings or work in progress freely via telephone with colleagues and the
lay public.  We feel this is our obligation to the taxpayer whose tax
dollars support our grants.  We are a totally open program, except for
identifying registrants, which by law and bioethics we cannot do, and it is
a tribute to our granting agency that this openness policy is fully
supported and has never been questioned.

As a federally funded research program, anything less would, in my view, be
unacceptable; we owe every taxpayer, even if that taxpayer is a 'competing'
scientist, courteous, fair and insofar as is possible, complete answer to
what we have done with their research dollars.  We also owe the scientific
community the benefit of our research findings.  In the absence of
overriding considerations such as national security, bioethics (eg privacy),
legal requirements, or 'unripe' data -- ie data that has not yet ben
validated or analyzed -- we feel openness is the appropriate policy.  I
would be interested in hearing from other researchers who operate under
similar policies of openness; in my experience, by no means all do.

Ron Kathren, Director
US Transuranium and Uranium Registries

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