Open-Source Science Initiative

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.

open source initiative

Announcements

Open Source Science Data Repositories Workshop, September 27-30

This workshop is a follow up on the Data Repositories Workshop hosted at Glenn Research Center back in 2018. Explore the workshop details.

Publications in CHORUS Journals Soon to Satisfy Archiving Requirement

NASA has entered into a partnership agreement with the Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States (CHORUS) publishing group. NASA researchers who publish or have published in a CHORUS member’s journal can now more easily satisfy the Agency’s requirements for public access.

CHORUS coordinates with funding agencies, publishers, and institutions to share knowledge, develop solutions, advance innovation, and support collective efforts to make peer-reviewed publications accessible to the public at no cost. CHORUS is interoperable with agency search portals, publisher platforms, and scholarly repositories and archives.

In the coming months, NASA will leverage CHORUS resources to increase access to NASA-funded research by integrating metadata for NASA-funded publications available from CHORUS, an estimated 25,000 additional articles, into a new PubSpace platform within the NASA STI Repository. More details on NASA’s public access policy requirements and submission guidance for scientific and technical information can be found on the NASA STI Program website.

Questions may be directed to Gerald Steeman at gerald.steeman@nasa.gov.

SPD-41 Science Information Policy

We have recently released Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Policy: SPD-41: The Science Information Policy. This policy consolidates existing guidance on maximizing the openness and accessibility of the information that SMD produces. Learn More

We’ve also released a Request for Information to gather feedback on the implementation to the information policy  and on the impact of the proposed changes to SPD-41.

 

Why do Open Science?

 

  • Broadens participation and fosters greater collaboration in scientific investigations by lowering the barriers to entry into scientific exploration
  • Generates greater impact and more citations to scientific results

Learn more about the benefits of open science.

 

Open-Source Science at NASA

Open-Source Science Initiative (OSSI) includes the following components: