“On March 28, 2023, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) released a request for information on “NASA’S Public Access Plan: Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research.” The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is pleased to offer the following comments in response to this request….”
“We appreciate the benefits that collaborations with external partners, such as CHORUS, may provide. Because third-party vendors operate under terms that are subject to change, they should serve as a supplement to support compliance, rather than a proxy to indicate compliance. This approach ensures that NASA remains in a strong position to leverage external partners where it benefits the agency and its grantees while retaining flexibility to adapt its approach should the terms change under which services such as CHORUS are offered—without the burden of revising policy.
We further recommend that NASA explicitly emphasize the availability of compliance options that do not present financial barriers. NASA’s plan and associated policies and guidance should clearly describe how authors can fully comply with its public access policy at no cost by depositing the author’s accepted manuscript into NASA’s PubSpace or any other agency-approved repository.
Because authors may be encouraged to pay added Open Access fees in circumstances when they are unnecessary for compliance, NASA should clarify that any charges from publishers are publication charges—not compliance charges. It is critical that authors do not conflate compliance with article processing charges (APCs), which create significant barriers for less-well-resourced authors and institutions to make their research available. It is important for researchers to understand that the option to post their final peer-reviewed manuscript into an agency-designated repository is an affordable and equitable full compliance mechanism that is available to them.
Institutional repositories run by libraries and other research institutions generally do not charge authors to deposit articles or manuscripts. These can play an important role in easing compliance burdens on authors, improving discoverability of research outputs, and providing long-term preservation support. Therefore, we strongly recommend that NASA allow for the deposit of publications into other repositories beyond PubSpace, and suggest that NASA utilize the guidance set out in the U.S. Repository Network’s Desirable Characteristics of Digital Publications Repositories….”
“NASA seeks public input on the “NASA’s Public Access Plan, Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research” (NASA Public Access Plan). NASA has a decades-long history of providing public access to scholarly publications and data resulting from the research it supports, including through the 2014 Open Access Plan. In 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a memorandum on “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research” that establishes new guidance for improving public access to scholarly publications and data resulting from Federally supported research. The NASA Public Access Plan outlines the proposed approach NASA will take to implement the new guidance, consistent with its longstanding commitment to public access.”
“NASA’s Transform to Open Science (TOPS) mission is being designed to support the adoption of open science and broaden participation in science. TOPS efforts are built on relationships with a variety of diverse communities. Join us March 09, 2023 for a joint community forum between the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) SEA Change, Creative Commons, and TOPS, Open Science: Challenges and Opportunities for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In the forum we will introduce the three organizations and then openly discuss what is open science in higher education institutions, how can learning to practice open science encourage equity across the entire STEMM enterprise, and how do we ensure that voices from traditional underrepresented geographical regions are not only included but prioritized?
Our goal in the forum and throughout the Year of Open Science, and beyond is to hold space for the scientific community to come together for intentional discussions around broadening participation and developing an equal level playing field to prioritize NASA’s Open Source Science Initiative priorities…”
“Software has been a crucial component to all of NASA’s major achievements, from space travel to the deepest images of our universe. Naturally, NASA’s need for high-quality scientific software has led it to open source developers, and now to an ambitious new program based on the larger principles of “open science.”
Bringing NASA’s open source message to the annual FOSDEM conference was Steve Crawford, a space-loving astronomer who is now also the data officer of NASA’s science directorate, the group engaging the scientific community to define questions and expand research….
But there’s also an outreach to the world beyond NASA — including a new $40 million, five-year program called Transform to Open Science. The idea of open science involves free availability of research information to encourage outside contributions, and NASA is actively trying to lead us there….
The official TOPS webpage calls it NASA’s “global community initiative to spark change and inspire open science engagement through events and activities that will shift the current paradigm.” Throughout 2023, NASA TOPS will be partnering with 12 scientific professional societies in the scientific community “to advance the adoption of open science, roll out an open science curriculum, and support minority-serving institutions engagement with NASA through prizes, challenges, and hackathons.”…”
“A Guide for Participating in a Year of Open Science!
On 11 January 2023 the US White House — joined by 10 federal agencies, a coalition of more than 85 universities, and other organizations — declared 2023 to be a Year of Open Science!
White House factsheet
NASA announces a Year of Open Science in Nature
Federal website
This year will celebrate the benefits and successes of open science and inspire more scientists to adopt open science. Ultimately, the success of a Year of Open Science will be driven by collaborations with individuals, teams, and organizations who are ready to transform the culture of science into one that celebrates openness, and inclusion!
The Year of Open Science has set out 4 goals to work towards:
Develop a strategic plan for open science
Improve the transparency, integrity, and equity of reviews
Account for open science activities in evaluations
Engage underrepresented communities in the advancement of open science…”
“A Guide for Participating in a Year of Open Science!
On 11 January 2023 the US White House — joined by 10 federal agencies, a coalition of more than 85 universities, and other organizations — declared 2023 to be a Year of Open Science!
White House factsheet
NASA announces a Year of Open Science in Nature
Federal website
This year will celebrate the benefits and successes of open science and inspire more scientists to adopt open science. Ultimately, the success of a Year of Open Science will be driven by collaborations with individuals, teams, and organizations who are ready to transform the culture of science into one that celebrates openness, and inclusion!
The Year of Open Science has set out 4 goals to work towards:
Develop a strategic plan for open science
Improve the transparency, integrity, and equity of reviews
Account for open science activities in evaluations
Engage underrepresented communities in the advancement of open science…”
“Speaker Ryan McGranaghan, Orion Space Solutions, Louisville, CO. Summary: A knowledge commons is a combination of intelligent information representation and the openness, governance, and trust required to create a participatory ecosystem whereby the whole community maintains and evolves this shared information space. This talk introduces the topic of a knowledge commons as a a foundation for open, inclusive, plural science and welcome discussion around how the commons can help create a more flourishing community….”
“Every day, JWST can collect more than 50 gigabytes of data, compared with just one or two gigabytes for Hubble. The data, which contains images and spectroscopic signatures (essentially light broken apart into its elements), is fed through an algorithm run by STScI. Known as a “pipeline,” it turns the telescope’s raw images and numbers into useful information. Some of this is released immediately on public servers, where it is picked up by eager scientists or even by Twitter bots such as the JWST Photo Bot. Other data is handed to scientists on programs that have proprietary windows, enabling them to take time analyzing their own data before it is released to the masses….”
“I’m thrilled to be the Transform to Open Science lead for NASA, which has a 60-year legacy of pushing the limits of how science is used to understand the Universe, planetary systems and life on Earth. Much of NASA’s success can be attributed to a culture of openness for the public good. Since the 1990s, the agency has been a leading advocate for full and open access to data and algorithms.
That culture is needed now more than ever. Humanity is facing many intersecting challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change and food and water insecurity. To combat them, we must find breakthroughs faster, increase interdisciplinary expertise and improve how we translate research findings into action. This will require a fundamental shift: from simply sharing results in journal articles to collaborating openly, publishing reproducible results and implementing full inclusivity and transparency….
In May 2021, I sent a one-page call to action for a Year of Open Science to NASA’s chief science data officer, and received immediate support. NASA headquarters formed a team to develop the concept. We talked to as many people as possible to learn their motivations, concerns and future needs related to open science. After a year of such discussions, we had a path forward. In April 2022, I started an assignment at NASA to lead the 5-year, US$40-million-dollar Transform to Open Science mission, which will be kicked off with the year of open science….
First, we agreed on a definition: open science is the principle and practice of making research products and processes available to all, while respecting diverse cultures, maintaining security and privacy, and fostering collaborations, reproducibility and equity. Next, we set four goals for each agency involved in the Year of Open Science: to develop a strategic plan for open science; improve the transparency and equity of reviews; account for open-science activities in evaluations; and engage under-represented communities in the advancement of open science….”
“NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is asking public and private sector entities for ideas on how to better manage data and computing infrastructure.
In a notice posted Thursday on SAM.gov, the directorate said that input from the request for information will support a larger goal to align the agency’s computing systems to Open-source Science policies.
The space agency established the Open-Source Science Initiative to promote early-stage sharing of software, data, documents and other relevant scientific knowledge in the spirit of transparency, inclusivity, accessibility and reproducibility.
To this end, SMD is seeking technologies and opportunities that can support open-science information and computing functions.
The RFI is aimed at U.S. and non-U.S. organizations from the industry, academe, government and science community. Individual researchers are also welcome to submit responses, which are due on Feb. 21….”
“Data rescue: the act of finding and transferring data from a non-public place to a publicly accessible and supported repository. May require data transformation from analog to digital format(s).
Data recovery: the process of restoring data that hasbeen lost, accidentally deleted, corrupted or madeinaccessible….”
“On December 8, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) released an important update to its comprehensive Scientific Information Policy (SPD-41a), which represents a significant percentage of NASA’s research expenditures. While this policy does not serve as NASA’s official response to the OSTP Nelson Memorandum, it is a good indication of what we are likely to ultimately see in NASA’s agency-wide public access plan, which is due out in February 2023….
Requires that peer-reviewed publications be made openly available with no embargo period via deposit in an agency-approved repository….
Requires that research data be shared at the time of publication or the end of the funding award….
Requires mission software to be developed and shared openly….
Requires that the proceedings of SMD-sponsored meetings and workshops be held openly to enable broad participation….”
“On December 8, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) released an important update to its comprehensive Scientific Information Policy (SPD-41a), which represents a significant percentage of NASA’s research expenditures. While this policy does not serve as NASA’s official response to the OSTP Nelson Memorandum, it is a good indication of what we are likely to ultimately see in NASA’s agency-wide public access plan, which is due out in February 2023….
Requires that peer-reviewed publications be made openly available with no embargo period via deposit in an agency-approved repository….
Requires that research data be shared at the time of publication or the end of the funding award….
Requires mission software to be developed and shared openly….
Requires that the proceedings of SMD-sponsored meetings and workshops be held openly to enable broad participation….”
“NASA is making a long-term commitment to building an inclusive open science community over the next decade. Open-source science is a commitment to the open sharing of software, data, and knowledge (algorithms, papers, documents, ancillary information) as early as possible in the scientific process. The principles of open-source science are to make publicly funded scientific research transparent, inclusive, accessible, and reproducible. Advances in technology, including collaborative tools and cloud computing, help enable open-source science, but technology alone is insufficient. Open-source science requires a culture shift to a more inclusive, transparent, and collaborative scientific process, which will increase the pace and quality of scientific progress.
To help build a culture of open science, NASA is championing a new initiative: the Open-Source Science Initiative (OSSI). OSSI is a comprehensive program of activities to enable and support moving science towards openness, including policy adjustments, supporting open-source software, and enabling cyberinfrastructure. OSSI aims to implement NASA’s Strategy for Data Management and Computing for Groundbreaking Science 2019-2024, which was developed through community input….”