Due to the lapse in federal government funding, NASA is not updating this website.

Suggested Searches

BPS Data Management

BPS Scientific Data Management Policy

To increase scientific research throughput and the transparency of government funded research, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) seeks to transform the collection, archival/preservation, curation, and distribution of science data. To that end, the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has issued new policies as described in the Scientific Information Policy (SMD Policy Document SPD-41a) for the Science Mission Directorate consistent with NASA and Federal policy, that information produced from SMD-funded scientific research activities be made publicly available. This information includes publications, data, and software created in the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

The Biological and Physical Sciences Division now has the BPS Scientific Data Management Policy, which defines policies and provides guidelines for managing scientific data by its programs, projects, investigators, and repositories.

BPS Scientific Data Management Policy (PDF)

Space Biology Open Science Data Management Plan (OS-DMP)

The Space Biology Program has released the Space Biology Open Science Data Management Plan (OS-DMP), which provides proposers with guidelines and a template for their data management plan, required in solicitations.

Space Biology OS-DMP Guide and Template

Explore Opportunities in Open Science and Open Data at NASA

NASA's Open Science and Open Data initiatives strive to help scientists discover and access datasets to perform primary, secondary, and meta-analyses. Open Science is a model that maximizes community participation in the formulation of investigations, collection of tissues, and dissemination of data.

Hundreds of studies can then be conducted from just one flight experiment's data, exponentially increasing the body of knowledge. The Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) Division recognizes the importance of collecting tissues and archiving data, metadata, computational tools, and samples from both spaceflight and ground studies to enable Open Science and future experiments.

These initiatives dovetail with NASA's efforts to implement the "FAIR" principles to ensure all data are:

  • Findable - consistent and persistent descriptions make scientific data easy to find by both humans and computers
  • Accessible - use of standard, open protocols ensure data and metadata can be accessed by all.
  • Interoperable - formal, accessible, and widely adopted semantics and vocabularies are used to expand data usability across systems and communities
  • Reusable - data are richly described according to standards to ensure they can be combined or replicated, and usage rights are clarified

NASA's BPS Division is defining policies and procedures to implement the FAIR principles within its Open Science data repositories and archives, with the primary goals of increased, collaborative scientific data sharing and analysis and more rapid scientific advancement.

With NASA's suite of open BPS repositories, scientists can use existing datasets to make new discoveries, propose future investigations, or influence research trends. These groups ensure that data and biospecimens are preserved and accessible for re-use by the science community. Read on for a description of several ways that investigators can participate in biological and physical open science research using BPS Division resources.