Sec. 505. Public access to Department of Veterans Affairs research and data sharing between Departments
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The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall make available on an Internet website of the Department of Veterans Affairs available to the public the following: Data files that contain information on research of the Department. A data dictionary on each data file. Instructions for how to obtain access to each data file for use in research. Beginning not later than 540 days after the effective date specified in subsection (e), the Secretary shall require, as a condition on the use of any data gathered or formulated from research funded by the Department, that any final, peer-reviewed manuscript prepared for publication that uses such data be submitted to the Secretary for deposit in the digital archive under paragraph
(2)and publication under paragraph (3). Not later than 540 days after the effective date specified in subsection (e), the Secretary shall— establish a digital archive consisting of manuscripts described in paragraph (1); or partner with another executive agency to compile such manuscripts in a digital archive. The Secretary shall ensure that the digital archive under paragraph
(2)and the contents of such archive are available to the public via a publicly accessible Internet website at no cost to the public. The Secretary shall ensure that each manuscript submitted to the Secretary under paragraph
(1)is available to the public under subparagraph
(A)not later than one year after the official date on which the manuscript is otherwise published. The Secretary shall carry out this subsection in a manner consistent with applicable copyright law. Not later than one year after the date the Secretary begins making manuscripts available to the public under this subsection and not less frequently than once each year thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives a report on the implementation of this subsection during the most recent one-year period. Each report submitted under subparagraph
(A)shall include for the period of the report: The number of manuscripts submitted under paragraph (1). The titles of such manuscripts. The authors of such manuscripts. For each such manuscript, the name and issue number or volume number, as the case may be, of the journal or other publication in which such manuscript was published. Not later than one year after the effective date specified in subsection (e), the Department of Veterans Affairs-Department of Defense Joint Executive Committee established by section 320(a) of title 38, United States Code, shall submit to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of Defense options and recommendations for the establishment of a program for long-term cooperation and data sharing between and within the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense to facilitate research on outcomes of military service, readjustment after combat deployment, and other topics of importance to the following: Veterans. Members of the Armed Forces. Family members of veterans. Family members of members of the Armed Forces. Members of communities that have a significant population of veterans or members of the Armed Forces. In this section, the term executive agency has the meaning given that term in section 133 of title 41, United States Code. This section shall take effect on the date that is one year after the date of the enactment of this Act.