NASA
Open-Source
Science
Initiative

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.

News

Request for Information on SMD Information Policy

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) recently released SMD Policy(SPD)-41: The Science Information Policy. SPD-41 is a consolidation of existing policies and laws applicable to the openness and accessibility of data, software, papers, and ancillary informat...
Dec 10, 2021

Science Information Policy

The information produced as part of NASA’s scientific research activities represents a significant public investment. NASA holds this information as a public trust to increase knowledge and serve the public good. This information includes publications, data, an...
Oct 12, 2021

Open-Source Science for Data Processing and Archives Workshop

NASA’s Open-Source Science for Data Processing and Archives Workshop was held virtually on October 14, 2021. This workshop was a follow up to our previous 2018 archives meeting, originally hosted at Glenn Research Center.
Oct 01, 2021

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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.

Open (Transparent) Science
scientific process and results should be visible, accessible, and understandable
Open (Accessible) Science
data, tools, software, documentation, and publications should be accessible to all (FAIR)
Open (Inclusive) Science
process and participants should welcome participation by and collaboration with diverse people and organizations
Open (Reproducible) Science
Scientific process and results should be open such that they are reproducible by members of the community