Evaluating the (in)accessibility of data behind papers in astronomy

Abstract:  This paper presents results of a survey of authors of journal articles published over several decades in astronomy. The study focuses on determining the characteristics and accessibility of data behind papers, referring to the spectrum of raw and derived data that would be needed to validate the results of a particular published article as a capsule of scientific knowledge. Curating the data behind papers can arguably lead to new discoveries through reuse. However, as shown through related research and confirmed by the results of the present study, a fully accessible portrait of the data behind papers is often unavailable. These findings have implications for reusability efforts and are presented alongside a discussion of open science.

Anti-Big Bang theory scientists face censorship by international journals- The New Indian Express

“Twenty-four astronomers and physicists from 10 countries including reputed astrophysicist Jayant V Narlikar of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics ®, Prof Sisir Roy of National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) and Prof Amitabha Ghosh of Indian National Science Academy (INSA) ® from India are among the scientists protesting the censorship of papers that are critical of the Big Bang hypothesis by the open pre-print website arXiv….”

How open source is supporting NASA’s new eyes in space | The GitHub Blog

” “Any rich nation can build a space telescope, but only a great nation gives its information away to the world to be used for the common heritage and betterment of mankind.” – Barbara Mikulski, former Maryland State Senator

Open source is the backbone of some of the greatest human achievements in technology. There’s a quiet power to open source communities and the contributors that power them. A developer never really truly knows how the code they are building will impact the broader technology ecosystem, but they know it’s likely to positively impact someone, somewhere. This ethos of sharing and contributing and never expecting a pat on the back is what makes open source and its contributors special, and is why it’s all the more exciting when a developer learns that that one contribution they made on a regular weekend has impacted something like flying a helicopter on Mars.

Just last month, we saw the long-awaited liftoff of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We wanted to take a moment to celebrate NASA’s achievement and all the agencies involved, but also to take a step back and reflect on how open source has gradually become a key partner to scientists and astronomers alike….”

2021-2024 Open Science Action Plan | Canadian Space Agency

“Under the leadership of the CSA Scientific Advisor and Chief Scientific Data Officer and with the collaboration of the Chief Information Officer’s team, the CSA is pleased to present the 2021-2024 Open Science Action Plan. This plan offers the status and direction of Open Science activities in three key areas: Open Data, Open Access Publications, and Engagement. To best demonstrate the importance of Open Science and its cross-cutting attributes, that advance commitments government-wide, the CSA presents the Open Science System to conceptualize the path forward for the next three years….”

NASA Transform to Open Science Community Forum on May 12 – General – GOSH Community Forum

“As NASA’s Transform to Open Science 1 (TOPS) moves into the upcoming 2023 Year of Open Science, the TOPS team will regularly update the community on these activities, highlight open science success stories and lessons learned, Q&A, and other open science news in a series of TOPS Community Forums.

We invite you to join us May 12th at 2:00-3:00pm for NASA’s TOPS Community Forum. Participants can enter their question(s) or up-vote others’ questions – to help guide the discussions needed for successful implementation – after providing their first and last names and organizations at this portal: TOPS Community Engagement – NASA 1 . We will try to answer as many of the submitted questions as possible….”

A&A confirms open access in 2022 through Subscribe-to-Open

“Following the announcement made in October 2021 that Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) would move to the Subscribe-to-Open (S2O) open access model in 2022, the A&A board of directors and EDP Sciences are pleased to announce that A&A has now received the required level of support and will be published open access in 2022 under the terms of this transformative model….”

Position Statement on Earth and Space Science Data | AGU

“Earth and space science data are a world heritage, and an essential part of the science ecosystem. All players in the science ecosystem—researchers, repositories, publishers, funders, institutions, etc.—should work to ensure that relevant scientific evidence is processed, shared, and used ethically, and is available, preserved, documented, and fairly credited. To achieve this legacy, all AGU members and stakeholders must have a clear understanding of the culture of responsible research, and take action to support, enable, and nurture that culture.

The Challenge

Preserving data as a world heritage requires a culture of data use, sharing, curation, and attribution that is equitable, accessible, and ethical, all of which are essential for scientific research to be transparent, trusted, and valued. Data and other research artefacts, such as physical samples, software, models, methods, and algorithms, are all part of the science ecosystem and essential for research. Data and other research artefacts must be discoverable, accessible, verifiable, trustworthy, and usable, and those responsible for their acquisition or creation should receive due credit for their contribution to scientific advancement. Trustworthy, robust, verifiable, reproducible, and open science is our responsibility and legacy for future generations. To achieve this legacy, policy makers, AGU members, and other stakeholders must recognize that the science ecosystem should be flexible enough to adapt to a changing landscape of research practices, technology innovation, and demonstrations of impact. They must also have a clear understanding of the culture of responsible research, and take action to support, enable, and nurture that culture. This statement, in alignment with other AGU position statements, helps form the foundation to support data as a world heritage.

The Solution

I. Championing Open and Transparent Data

Robust, verifiable, and reproducible science requires that evidence behind an assertion be accessible for evaluation. Researchers have a responsibility to collect, develop, and share this evidence in an ethical manner, that is as open and transparent as possible. Most Earth and space science data can and should be openly available except in cases where human subjects are involved, where other legal restrictions apply, or where data release could cause harm, (e.g. where data could lead to identification of specific people, or could publicly reveal locations of endangered species). Even where data are not publicly available, transparency of collection and processing methods, data quality, inherent assumptions, and known sources of bias is essential. Building transparency and ethical behavior into the entire science ecosystem, even as technology and scientific practice evolves, is a vital component of responsible research.

Data and other research artefacts are useful to the broader scientific community only insofar as they can be shared, examined, and reused. Working within discipline communities to develop, share, and adopt best practices, standards, clear documentation and appropriate licensing will facilitate sharing and interoperability. …

Statement adopted by the American Geophysical Union 29 May 1997; Reaffirmed May 2001, May 2005, May 2006; Revised and Reaffirmed May 2009, February 2012, September 2015; November 2019.”

Open Science Pathways in the Earth, Space, and Life Sciences – A joint event co-organized by SciLifeLab and the AGU | AGU Data Leadership

“SciLifeLab Data Centre and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) invite you to a half-day event on 2022 May 9 focusing on the following Open Science themes:

The Path to Open, Reproducible Science – Stories from the Research Community
How to Open Science – Practical Use Cases, Lessons Learned from the Research Community
Open Science from a Broader Context – What Open Science Means from the National and International Perspectives

The event will feature a number of speakers (listed below) all addressing these themes on Open Science from various perspectives. The online event will start at 12:00 and end at 17:00 CEST (See date/time in your time zone). Please join us. Registration is free. Please join us and we look forward to seeing you….”

Asclepias: Citing Software, Making Science

“The Asclepias Project builds networks of citations between the astronomical academic literature and software, helping you find the tools to push your research forward….

The Asclepias Project is a joint effort of the American Astronomical Society, the NASA Astrophysics Data System, Zenodo, and Sidrat Research, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.”

Astronomy community shapes their own destiny with Astropy · GitHub

“Open source software provides the backbone for astronomical science. The Python ecosystem is particularly important to astronomers, who rely heavily on mathematical packages like NumPy and matplotlib for their work. Perhaps the most central tool in the modern astronomer’s workflow is Astropy, a collection of specialized Python tools built and maintained by and for the astronomical community. More than 400 people have contributed to Astropy, including astronomers and other scientists, software engineers, and infrastructure specialists….”

Planetary Data System: Information for Data Proposers

“In response to a 2013 federal mandate the NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research was developed to guide the management of and access to research data and peer-reviewed publications. Accordingly, the NASA Guidebook for Proposers describes the requirement that all proposals submitted under a NASA funding opportunity are required to submit a Data Management Plan. This website contains information and links that NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS) believes will be helpful in preparing your proposal and your Data Management Plan, or simply as you develop a plan for archiving your data even if not as part of a funded proposal. If you have additional questions contact either the PDS or the relevant NASA Program Officer.

The intent of this website is to provide potential data providers with an overview of the appropriateness of the PDS as an archive for their data, the procedure for requesting letters of support for grant proposals, and the steps that a data provider would take in the generation of a PDS-compliant archive….”

Last updated October 2021.

NASA Open Source Science Workshop

“Last week NASA led an Open Source Science for Data Processing and Archives Workshop, announcing new initiatives to support open science. This was very exciting to be a part of — we learned about NASA’s continuing leadership in open science and presented some of our work with Openscapes. This is a brief summary, and will be updated with links to slides and recordings….”

Science Mesh in Social Media Analytics and Astronomy – Collaborative Documents and On-Demand data transfers | CS3MESH4EOSC

“The second CS3MESH4EOSC webinar, entitled “Science Mesh in Social Media Analytics and Astronomy – Collaborative Documents and On-Demand data transfers” is going to take place on 17th November from 1:00 pm-2:00 pm CEST. 

The webinar will be focused on the two data services (On-Demand Data Transfer and Collaborative Documents) and the related Use-Cases (LOFAR and RiseSMA).

The speakers will highlight how the Science Mesh is integrating both data services into the federated Science Mesh across disciplines. Exemplary benefits of this integration in Social Media Analytics and Crisis Communication (RiseSMA) and Astronomy (LOFAR – Low-Frequency Array), fields will be presented by real use cases that are already getting benefits from the Science Mesh’s features….”