Sender: <cgplmgr@cni.org>
To: CNI-ANNOUNCE
Date: Wed, 17 May 2023 17:29:01 -0400
Message-ID: <redirect-40649234@cni.org>
From: Cliff Lynch <cliff@cni.org>
Subject: Some Recent Developments in Research Security and Science
 Nationalism
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

In this message I want to collect and share a number of recent developments in research security and science nationalism. I'll break this into three sections: US National Science Foundation (NSF) developments; NIST developments; and developments in international access to information resources.  I hope these are helpful.

NSF

NSF now has a substantial page that collects many resources and pointers dealing with research security. This is at

https://new.nsf.gov/research-security

Of particular note here, I want to note that the NSF Director has issued a recent Dear Colleague letter calling for input on a  Research Security and Integrity Information Sharing Analysis Organization (RSI-ISAO). See

https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf23098

and there will be webinars on May 18 and May 24 following up on this. To register and for further information, see

https://nsf.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_vkOR6TrlRR6sb-03wmMYXA

(note that it's one webinar, repeated). There's also more information on this initiative on the research security page mentioned above. 

Also, there's a report from JASON titled "Research Program on Research Security" at

https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/2023-03/JSR-22-08%20NSF%20Research%20Program%20on%20Research%20Security_03152023_FINAL_1.pdf

which is interesting reading; my understanding is that NSF will use this as a starting point for developing program of research on research security in the coming fiscal year.

NIST

(with thanks to Gary Price for some of these pointers)

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued revisions to Standard SP 800-171 for protecting sensitive unclassified information (including research data, in some cases). The announcement is here

https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2023/05/nist-revises-sp-800-171-guidelines-protecting-sensitive-information

and will host a webinar on June 6 discussing the details of the updates. For more information and registration see

https://csrc.nist.gov/Events/2023/protecting-cui-draft-sp800171-rev3

The webinar will be recorded and NIST will likely make the recording available. 


International Access to Information Resources


A few weeks ago, a list posting from Jim O'Donnell of ASU called attention to the following curious news article

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3214808/portal-china-closing-least-temporarily-and-researchers-are-nervous

and there were some subsequent institutional announcements, such as 

https://cdlib.org/cdlinfo/2023/04/13/select-cnki-resources-undergo-temporary-suspension/

Recently, there was an interesting Wall Street Journal (sorry, paywall) article that provides some important background on this

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-think-tank-reports-prompted-beijing-to-put-a-lid-on-chinese-data-5f249d5e

Further developments on this are worth tracking, I think. 


Clifford Lynch
Director, CNI