NASA Plan for Increasing Access

to the Results of Scientific Research

DIGITAL SCIENTIFIC DATA AND 

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Final December 2014

NASA Plan for Increasing Access

to the Results of Scientific Research

DIGITAL SCIENTIFIC DATA AND 

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

Submitted to the Office of Science and Technology Policy 

on November 21, 2014

Contents

iii

Introduction 1

PART A: Digital Scientific Data 3

1.0 Purpose and Background 3

2.0 Principles 4

3.0 Scope 5

4.0 Requirements 6

5.0 Applicability 7

6.0 Roles and Responsibilities 8

7.0 Implementation 8

8.0 Update and Reevaluation of this Plan 12

PART B: Peer-Reviewed Publications 13

1.0 Background: Goals, Constraints, Options, and Strategy 13

2.0 Scope 14

3.0 Requirements 15

4.0 Applicability 15

5.0 Authority 16

6.0 Roles and Responsibilities 16

7.0 Implementation 16

8.0 Metrics, Compliance, and Evaluation 18

9.0 Public Consultation 19

10.0 Interagency Coordination 19

11.0 Public Notice 19

12.0 Update and Reevaluation of the Plan 20

13.0 Timeline for Implementation 20

14.0 Resources 20

15.0 Additional Material 21

Contents

Introduction

1

This plan is issued in response to the Executive Office of the President’s February 22, 

2013, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Memorandum for the Heads 

of Executive Departments and Agencies, “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally 

Funded Scientific Research.” Through this memorandum, OSTP directed all agencies 

with more than $100 million in annual research and development expenditures to prepare a plan for improving the public’s access to the results of federally funded research.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) invests on the order of 

$3 billion annually in fundamental and applied research and technology development1

across a broad range of topics, including space and Earth sciences, life and physical sciences, human health, aeronautics, and technology. Promoting the full and open sharing 

of data with research communities, private industry, academia, and the general public is 

one of NASA’s longstanding core values. For example, NASA’s space and suborbital mission personnel routinely process, archive, and distribute their data to researchers around 

the globe. This plan expands the breadth of NASA’s open-access culture to include data 

and publications for all of the scientific research that the Agency sponsors. 

1 Report Regarding America Competes Act Pursuant to Section 1008(c) of the America Competes Act 

(Public Law 110-69).

Introduction
2

NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research

This plan establishes objectives to ensure public access to publications and digital 

datasets arising from NASA research, development, and technology (RD&T) programs 

in order to:

n affirm and enhance NASA’s commitment to public access to scientific 

research results;

n ensure access to and reliable preservation of NASA-funded scholarly publications and digital datasets for research, development, commercialization, and 

educational purposes, within available resources;

n preserve and increase the use of scientific research results to enhance scientific 

discovery and application of research results;

n affirm NASA’s commitment to its scientific integrity policy and support the 

reproducibility of scientific research results;

n ensure that all extramural researchers receiving NASA grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts for scientific research and intramural researchers develop 

data management plans, as appropriate, describing how they will provide for the 

long-term preservation and access of scientific data in digital format;

n optimize archival and dissemination of data and publications, including longterm stewardship;

n support training, education, and workforce development related to scientific 

data management, analysis, storage, preservation, and stewardship; and

n support governance of and best practices for managing public access to peerreviewed scholarly publications and digital data across NASA.

The February 22, 2013, OSTP memorandum’s objectives are provided in two distinct areas: digital scientific data and peer-reviewed publications. NASA’s plan addresses 

these objectives separately, in Parts A and B below, respectively. 
3

1.0 Purpose and 

Background

2.0 Principles

3.0 Scope

4.0 Requirements

5.0 Applicability

6.0 Roles and 

Responsibilities

7.0 Implementation

8.0 Update and 

Reevaluation 

of this Plan

PART A

Digital Scientific Data

1.0 Purpose and Background

The sections that follow comprise the data component of the NASA Plan for Increasing 

Access to the Results of Scientific Research. The purpose of Part A is to increase the 

accessibility of digital data produced by NASA intramural researchers and by recipients 

of NASA grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts. 

NASA is committed to following Federal guidelines that all data from federally 

funded research should be made as widely and freely available as possible while safeguarding the privacy of participants and protecting confidential and proprietary data. 

To facilitate increased access to such data, NASA will update its research data policy to 

require all investigators submitting a research proposal or research project plan2

 to NASA 

to include a plan for managing and providing access to final research data or to state why 

their data cannot or need not be made publicly available. 

NASA conducts and supports research across a broad range of topics, including space 

and Earth sciences, life and physical sciences, human health research, aeronautics, and 

technology development. The types of data and the needs for sharing and preserving 

data across the fields vary considerably. For this reason, NASA has taken the approach 

2 In the case of directed, intramural research, project plans are submitted in place of proposals.
4

NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research

of developing a high-level, overarching policy allowing flexibility within the research 

program areas to determine specific requirements and needs. 

NASA has a long-standing culture of promoting the full and open sharing of data 

with research communities, private industry, academia, and the general public. NASA 

space and airborne mission personnel routinely process, archive, and distribute their data 

to researchers around the globe. Data from all NASA spacecraft are currently available 

through the individual mission and theme archives (e.g., the Earth Observing System 

Data and Information System [EOSDIS], which is one of the largest repositories of Earth 

science data in the world—over 7 petabytes—and to which new data are added at a 

rate of 5 terabytes per day). Similarly, the Human Research Program shares its astronaut crew medical data (adhering to appropriate privacy restrictions) with the medical research community. This plan extends NASA’s culture of open data access to all 

NASA-funded research.

2.0 Principles

This plan is based on the following set of principles:

n Effective data management has the potential to increase the pace of scientific 

discovery and promote more efficient and effective use of Government funding 

and resources.

n Sharing and preserving data are central to protecting the integrity of science 

by facilitating validation of results and to advancing science by broadening the 

value of research data to other disciplines and society at large.

n Data management should be an integral part of research planning.

n The degree to which research data needs to be shared or preserved varies across 

and within scientific disciplines; flexibility must be allowed for program-specific 

needs/requirements and consideration of benefits and costs, including preserving and promoting U.S. competitiveness. 

n Proprietary interests, business confidential information, intellectual property 

rights, and other relevant rights will continue to be recognized and appropriately protected.

n Protecting confidentiality and personal privacy are paramount, and no change 

will be made to existing policies that would reduce current protections.
Digital Scientific Data

5

3.0 Scope

Part A of the plan focuses on digital unclassified scientific research data, which are 

research data that can be stored digitally and accessed electronically. Part A follows the 

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A110 definition of research data:

Research data are defined as the recorded factual material commonly 

accepted in the scientific community as necessary to validate research findings, but not any of the following: preliminary analyses, drafts of scientific papers, plans for future research, peer reviews, or communications 

with colleagues. This “recorded” material excludes physical objects 

(e.g., laboratory samples). 

Research data also do not include:

(A) Trade secrets, commercial information, materials necessary to be 

held confidential by a researcher until they are published, or similar 

information which is protected under law; and

(B) Personal and medical information and similar information[,] the 

disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of 

personal privacy, such as information that could be used to identify a 

particular person in a research study.

Data are understood to include not only the recorded technical information, but also 

metadata (describing the data), descriptions of the software required to read and use the 

data, associated software documentation, and associated data (e.g., calibrations). 

Exclusion: NASA creates and provides a large suite of scientific and engineering “data 

products” whose dissemination to the research community and the general public advance 

the Agency’s core mission objectives. These “data products” come from NASA missions, 

instruments, and projects and typically have well-established scientific or technological 

goals and requirements. Subject to Federal laws regarding sensitive data and privacy, 

these data products are captured and archived by NASA for public access and use and are 

thus already compliant with the OSTP February 22, 2013, memorandum on access to 

research results. This plan therefore excludes these types of data. 

Implementation of this plan will be prospective and will not apply to any digital dataset established before this plan’s effective date, unless that digital dataset is augmented 

by federally funded research activities undertaken on or after this plan becomes effective. 
6

NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research

4.0 Requirements

This plan expands the existing policy and will impose requirements on all NASA scientific programs and intramural and extramural researchers. The Implementation section 

below provides the detail, but the conceptual requirements are as follows:

n All proposals or project plans submitted to NASA for scientific research funding 

will be required to include a Data Management Plan (DMP). The DMP should 

describe whether and how data generated through the course3 of the proposed 

research will be shared and preserved (including timeframe), or explain why data 

sharing and/or preservation are not possible or scientifically appropriate. At a 

minimum, DMPs must describe how data sharing and preservation will enable 

validation of published results or how such results could be validated if data are 

not shared or preserved.

n DMPs must provide a plan for making research data that underlie the results 

and findings in peer-reviewed publications digitally accessible at the time of publication or within a reasonable time period 4

 after publication. This includes data 

(or how to access data) that are displayed in charts and figures. This does not 

include preliminary data; laboratory notebooks; drafts of scientific papers, plans 

for research; peer-review reports; communications with colleagues; or physical 

objects, such as laboratory specimens. This requirement could be met by including the data as supplementary information to the published article, through 

NASA archives, or other means. The published article should indicate how these 

data can be accessed.

n DMPs will be reviewed as part of the overall NASA research proposal/project 

plan review process.

n NASA program managers will provide guidance to proposers and awardees, as 

well as monitor compliance with DMPs.

3 Per the scope (section 3) and definition of data, only the data used to support, validate, and corroborate 

published research findings are required to be shared, per this plan. Preliminary data, trial data, etc., are 

not included.

4 Data displayed in charts and figures must be available at the time of publication. Other data may be made 

available later, consistent with the approved DMP.
Digital Scientific Data

7

5.0 Applicability

This NASA research data policy will apply to the following individuals:

n all NASA employees, including full- and part-time employees; as well as 

support-service contract employees, consultants, and temporary and special 

Government employees; and

n awardees from non-NASA organizations that publish scientific research or 

compile digital datasets resulting from research, development, and technology 

programs funded through a NASA grant, contract, or other agreement. This 

includes but is not limited to nonprofit organizations, contractors, cooperative 

agreement holders, grantees, intergovernmental organizations, universities, and 

other educational institutions.

Additionally, the policy will apply:

n to basic and applied scientific research across all NASA organizations;

n to all research proposals or project plans submitted after this plan becomes effective; and

n to both intramural and extramural research projects, regardless of the funding 

mechanism (grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, or internal Agency funding processes).

Exceptions

All researchers receiving Federal funding would be required to submit DMPs; however, 

in some cases, it is expected that the data will not be made public. Such data would 

include but are not limited to the following categories:

n educational grants and grants to individual students;

n work that is proprietary;

n work that results in personally identifiable human subjects research;

n export-controlled data;

n Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU; Controlled Unclassified Information [CUI]) data;

n national security classified data; and

n Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology 

Transfer (STTR) contracts.
8

NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research

6.0 Roles and Responsibilities

The Chief Information Officer will

n establish and coordinate an implementation team with representation from 

NASA’s four research-conducting Mission Directorates, the Offices of the Chief 

Scientist, the Chief Technologist, and the General Counsel; 

n coordinate the implementation of the Research Data Access Policy with NASA 

research organizations and the Office of the Administrator; and

n coordinate collaboration and cooperation on implementation of this policy with 

other Federal agencies. 

The heads of NASA Mission Directorates will

n include the requirements of this plan as terms and conditions of funding for 

grants, contracts, directed research projects, and other agreements established 

after January 1, 2015; and

n ensure organizational compliance with the Research Data Access Policy.

Program managers, program scientists, and program executives will

n ensure that DMPs are included in the proposal and properly evaluated; 

n ensure that all projects comply with the NASA Research Data Access Policy; 

n develop specific DMP guidance for reviewers, proposers, and awardees; and

n develop specific guidelines for intramural or extramural research projects.

Research investigators and their institutions as well as NASA Centers will

n ensure full compliance with DMPs. 

7.0 Implementation

This section outlines the steps to be taken to implement this plan, addressing the processes 

and procedures to be followed by proposers as well as by program managers and reviewers. 

7.1 NASA Research Data Policy 

NASA will expand upon its existing data policies as follows:

n All research proposers, intramural and extramural, will be required to submit 

DMPs with their proposals or project plans. DMPs will describe how the proposed research plan conforms to NASA policy on the dissemination and sharing 

of research results and will address:
Digital Scientific Data

9

1. the types of data to be produced in the course of the project5;

2. the standards to be used for data and metadata format and content;

3. the policies for accessing and sharing the data, including provisions for the 

appropriate protection of privacy, confidentiality, security, intellectual property, and other rights or requirements;

4. the policies and provisions for reuse, redistribution, and the production 

of derivatives; 

5. the plans for providing access to the data used in any science publication; and

6. the plans for archiving and preserving the data, as appropriate (use of existing databases or public repositories will be strongly encouraged), including 

how long the data will be preserved and accessible. 

n All research proposers should explicitly state that reasonable costs of data sharing may be included in the proposal or project plan budget; reasonable costs of 

data sharing should be included in the proposal or project plan budget.

n All investigators are to share their data at the time of publication, as defined in 

the DMP. This rule applies to data that are displayed in charts and figures. This 

requirement could be met by including the data as supplementary information 

to the published article or through other means. The published article should 

indicate how these data can be accessed.6

n Community-based standards should be promoted. NASA policy should encourage all supported investigators to make use of existing data and metadata standards (format and content standards) whenever feasible.

n NASA program managers are to include in research opportunity announcements (1) specific data requirements and expectations, (2) an example DMP or 

outline for the specific type of data likely to result from the funded projects, or 

(3) a statement that a DMP is not required because of the nature of the activity 

(e.g., no data or proprietary or personally identifiable data are expected). 

7.2 Develop Guidance and Training

NASA will develop guidance, including an overarching DMP template, to assist researchers in developing and implementing their DMPs. Example DMPS will be made available 

whenever possible. 

5 Refer to section 4.

6 It is anticipated that the Program Manager (or designee) would be part of the official approval process 

(signature process) for data release at the time of publication.
10

NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research

Additionally, specific guidance will be provided by program managers in the research 

solicitations. A few examples of such specific guidance include the following:

n minimum metadata requirements, including appropriate attribution (owner of 

the data and funding source) and conformance/interoperability with the common core research metadata required under the recent Open Data Policy;7

n expectations for planned repositories, including the ability of a repository to provide persistent identifiers for digital data, the standards that a repository should 

follow for implementation of those identifiers, and the ability of the repository 

to provide for appropriate-term access; and

n the interaction among the Principal Investigator, the data repository, and the 

NASA program manager to ensure that:

n appropriate attribution is included;

n data meet minimum quality standards; and

n data are appropriately evaluated for and secured to prevent disclosure of 

personally identifiable information and to protect proprietary interests, confidentiality, and intellectual property rights.

Finally, NASA will provide guidance for program managers to enable them to effectively and efficiently assess and monitor DMPs in their programs. Knowledgeable and 

proactive program managers will be key to successful implementation of this plan. The 

evaluation of DMPs will consider the relative value of long-term preservation and access 

and the associated costs and administrative burden.

7.3 Amend Current Documents/Policies/Web Sites

The revised research data policy will be added to NASA Procedural Requirement 

1080.1 A, Requirements for the Conduct of NASA Research and Technology (R&T). NASA 

will also amend its NASA Grants Handbook, NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate Management Handbook, and any other relevant documents or policies to reflect the 

research data policy. 

7.4 Involvement of Stakeholders and the Public

A plan for rollout of the policy has been developed. Appropriate training and guidance 

related to data management, storage, and preservation will be conducted in coordination 

with other Federal agencies and according to NASA best practices. The development of 

7 OMB Memorandum M-13-13 is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/

2013/m-13-13.pdf.
Digital Scientific Data

11

NASA’s final Research Data Access Plan will be conducted in a transparent manner, with 

solicitation of views from stakeholders and full disclosure to the science community and 

other interested parties. Stakeholders include libraries, federally funded researchers and 

users of their research results, and civil society groups. NASA will solicit opportunities 

for implementing public-private partnerships and will participate in relevant multiagency 

public-private partnerships and stakeholder engagement activities. 

7.5 Improving Public Access to Scientific Data

NASA will develop a catalog of datasets generated via NASA-sponsored research to enable 

researchers to locate and cite datasets and to link those datasets to the scientific literature. 

This catalog is expected to be part of the comprehensive public listing of Agency data 

that is required by the May 9, 2013, Executive Order and OMB Memorandum M-13-

13. The NASA data catalog will serve not as a repository of study data, but as a registry 

that will have information describing the dataset (i.e., metadata) and information about 

where and how to access the data. The development of this catalog will begin at the time 

of implementation of the policy. The public will have access to the catalog and associated 

data free of charge.

NASA will continue to identify additional approaches involving public and private 

sector entities and will continue efforts to improve public access to research data. NASA 

will explore the development of a research data commons—a federated system of research 

databases—along with other departments and agencies for the storage, discoverability, 

and reuse of data, with a particular focus on making the data underlying the conclusions 

of federally funded peer-reviewed scientific research publications available for free at the 

time of publication.

7.6 Establish Compliance Process and Metrics

Appropriate mechanisms and metrics will be developed to ensure that funding recipients 

are made aware of their obligations and to monitor whether awardees have complied with 

their DMPs. Compliance will be verified by program officers by evaluation of required 

project reports; if necessary, continuing funds may be withheld in cases of noncompliance. 
12

NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research

8.0 Update and Reevaluation of this Plan

Implementation of this plan will involve significant changes for both program managers and research investigators. To ensure that the lessons learned are captured and that 

NASA continually improves its procedures/policies with respect to research data management, a steering committee composed of all of the research organizations and the Office 

of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) has been established. This steering committee 

will meet on a regular basis to share experience and will conduct an annual assessment of 

the policy and its implementation for the first 5 years after the policy takes effect.

Recognizing that extensive data management will require funding, NASA has developed a cost model consistent with the plan (as outlined above) and has incorporated these 

needs into the Agency’s ongoing annual budget development process.
13

1.0 Background

2.0 Scope 

3.0 Requirements

4.0 Applicability 

5.0 Authority

6.0 Roles and 

Responsibilities

7.0 Implementation

8.0 Metrics, Compliance, 

and Evaluation

9.0 Public Consultation

10.0 Interagency 

Coordination

11.0 Public Notice

12.0 Update and Reevalu‐

ation of the Plan

13.0 Timeline for 

Implementation

14.0 Resources

15.0 Additional

Material

PART B

13

Peer-Reviewed Publications

1.0 Background: Goals, Constraints, Options, and Strategy

1.1 Goals and Constraints

NASA’s strategy for planning and executing its implementation of the memorandum’s 

provisions for research publications must respond to several goals and constraints.

First, the systems and processes developed and deployed must meet the memorandum’s requirements; more generally, the solution will make information easily discoverable, accessible, and usable by researchers and other users and effective in meeting their 

diverse needs. Through doing so, it will also enhance innovation and competitiveness.

Second, the information management environment for scientific publications, as 

complex as it is, is evolving dynamically as these plans are being developed. Public and 

private institutions, as well as consortia among them, are developing repository and 

access services for their own needs; many of these services could be directly applicable to 

the objectives of the memorandum and consistent with its endorsement of public-private 

partnership arrangements.

Third, the memorandum makes clear that agencies should not expect additional 

resources for the execution of their implementations. Since support for the initiative must 

therefore be subtracted from agencies’ program budgets, cost must be diligently managed 

and minimized. Since implementation risk translates into increased costs, a corollary is 

that risk also must be held to a minimum.
14

NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research

The plan is subject to law, agency mission, and resource constraints; national, homeland, 

and economic security; and the objectives laid out in the February 22, 2013, memorandum.

1.2 Options 

Thus, NASA’s strategy has led to an implementation that (1) is responsive to the memorandum and truly useful; (2) incorporates flexibility to take advantage of ongoing developments in publishing, research literature utilization, and mass information access; and 

(3) minimizes both cost and risk.

NASA commissioned an independent Analysis of Alternatives study comparing three 

public-private partnerships: the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) PubMed Central 

(PMC) system; the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Public Access Gateway for Energy 

and Science (PAGES); and the Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States 

(CHORUS), which is provided by the publishing community. The analysis also considered NASA’s internal document tracking system: the NASA Scientific and Technical 

Information (STI) Program’s NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS).

Based on the criteria listed in the OSTP memo dated February 22, 2013, and the 

need for flexibility in incorporating future upgrades, NASA has chosen the NIH PMC 

platform. NIH has led in information retrieval for many years, and the PMC is a capable, mature, and low-risk platform that has evolved over time. NASA will arrange, on a 

reimbursable basis, to acquire the necessary ingest, Extensible Markup Language (XML) 

conversion, and accessibility services, as well as other collateral support, for compliance 

with OSTP memo requirements. Also on a reimbursable basis, NIH PMC will provide a 

NASA-branded portal to access the full functionality of the PMC system.

2.0 Scope 

The scope of applicability of this plan includes all peer-reviewed scientific research 

publications authored or coauthored by investigators funded for this research by NASAappropriated funds. This includes both civil servant and non–civil servant investigators. 

Publications that contain material governed by personal privacy, export control, 

proprietary restrictions, or national security law or regulations are excluded. Patents 

are excluded.

The policy and required implementation actions are expected to go into effect first 

for publications authored or coauthored by civil servant investigators. Since full implementation for publications without civil servant authorship depends on the establishment 

of necessary copyright licenses to be incorporated into the awards, the implementation of 

the policy for these publications will take effect for research conducted and publications 
Peer-Reviewed Publications

15

developed with support by awards that establish those licenses. That is, for non–civil 

servants, publications from research funded by awards prior to any necessary copyright 

and license modifications will not be subject to the policy.

3.0 Requirements

Responsibility for submission of a publication and metadata to a designated repository 

will be the responsibility of the lead author or NASA-supported coauthor, if not the 

lead author (herein, the “corresponding author”). The metadata standard will conform 

to requirements of the designated repository and is expected to be coded in XML. These 

responsibilities will be established in provisions of the award that supports the investigation. The corresponding author may satisfy this requirement either by submitting 

or having his or her NASA Center STI office submit an exact copy of the as-accepted 

manuscript on acceptance by the publisher; or, if the publisher has an agreement in place 

with the repository to later transmit the edited and formatted Version of Record (VoR) to 

the repository, by this means without other action.

Awards of NASA funding by any instrument (e.g., grant, contract, or cooperative 

agreement) may be made conditional upon the recipient’s granting to the Government 

a broad license that enables the repository to transfer more limited rights to users of 

publications drawn from the repository. An alternative would be an award requirement 

for the recipient to ensure that any publishing agreement would allow the as-accepted 

manuscript to be posted to the centralized archive under its Terms of Service. 

In addition to imposition at the time of initial award, any license provisions can be 

changed when incremental funding is released to awardees.

Required annual and final reporting requirements for awardees regarding publications will be defined in the award instrument. 

4.0 Applicability 

The plan is applicable to peer-reviewed publications authored or coauthored by NASA 

civil servants or other researchers who perform research and publish results that are 

funded by NASA directly or indirectly (e.g., as Government employees or via grants, 

contracts, or cooperative agreements), including subawards. The defined applicability to 

“peer-reviewed publications” focuses on journal articles. Applicability to peer-reviewed 

conference abstracts and proceedings, which may experience a less rigorous standard of 

review, will be determined.
16

NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research

5.0 Authority

Section 20113 of the National Aeronautics and Space Act (51 U.S.C. §20113)

6.0 Roles and Responsibilities

The NASA OCIO will be the implementing arm of the Agency supported by a steering 

committee made up of representatives from the four research organizations.

Program and project managers will be responsible for compliance by principal investigators funded by NASA. 

7.0 Implementation

7.1 Planning

Planning activities are described in sections 9, 10, 12, and 13. The use of standards and 

existing systems is discussed in sections 7, 8, and 9.

7.2 Submission

The submission process will comply with NASA standard practices and follow all 

accepted protocols.

7.3 Management

The development and operation of the NASA research publication access program deriving from this plan will be managed by the NASA OCIO. The Agency has established a 

governance steering committee with representation from NASA’s four research-conducting Mission Directorates, the Office of the Chief Scientist, the Office of the Chief Technologist, and the Office of the General Counsel. Other organizations such as the Office 

of Procurement will be engaged as required.

This plan lays out a provisional program structure that may be modified in consultation with the steering committee in response to new information, technology, or 

user requirements.

Technological evolution of repository hardware and software will be the responsibility of the NIH PMC repository manager. Standards for NASA-sponsored metadata and 

citations will conform to prevailing Government-wide standards.
Peer-Reviewed Publications

17

The system will ensure that the public can read, download, and analyze in digital 

form final peer-reviewed manuscripts or final published documents. Texts and associated 

content (images, video, and supporting data) will be stored in nonproprietary or widely 

distributed formats.

7.4 Access and Discoverability

7.4.1 Embargoes. Metadata should be made accessible as soon as possible after final 

acceptance of a paper, even if the full text is subject to an embargo period. The 

metadata should be coded as XML so that it can be crawled by automated search 

engines in order to facilitate discovery. Metadata will be available promptly and 

without charge and will provide a link to the full text and supplemental materials when possible.

The default embargo period for full text open access under the OSTP memorandum is 12 months from appearance in the published journal. This standard embargo period is also the maximum and most common period for PMC 

and would be retained by NASA in utilization of that system. Publishers may 

petition for a longer embargo period, although strong evidence for the benefits 

would be needed. NASA will provide a Web site conduit where such petitions 

can be directed; if no uniform interagency policies and procedures are established, NASA will develop and implement its own.

7.4.1 Search. NASA recognizes that search capabilities are important. The 

approaches to optimization of accessibility and interoperability, while ensuring 

long-term stewardship of publications, will be those of PMC’s evolutionary technical advances.

It is expected that some provision will be identified or developed to support 

the cross-repository discovery and aggregated retrieval of multiple items identified in response to a single query. 

7.4.2 Acceptable-Use Policies. The system will facilitate analysis of publications 

ensuing from Federal funding, subject to its acceptable-use policies. Acceptable-use policies will reflect the provisions of PMC’s public license or repository 

Terms of Service. Attribution to authors, journals, and original publishers will 

be required in all uses, except in analyses where the identity and contribution of 

individual items are suppressed (e.g., in bulk analyses of aggregations of many 

works. Attribution will be attached to individual articles via their metadata.

Copyright and license provisions for reproduction, redistribution, and reuse 

will be aligned with PMC’s. It is the sole responsibility of repository users to 

conform to applicable terms and conditions.
18

NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research

If legal restrictions for enforcing a ban on mass distribution of publications 

are not effective, a technical solution may need to be devised and implemented.

7.4.4 Bulk Downloads for Research, and Managing the Restriction on Unauthorized Bulk Downloads. Bulk downloads for research purposes should be permitted as an acceptable use; the use of bulk downloads for creation of derivative 

products and/or commercial purposes will depend on user license or Terms of 

Service provisions.

7.4.5 Exposure to Third-Party Services. Primarily, this concerns access to the corpus by automated Web crawlers for third-party search engines. Since this can 

amplify access by interested users, it is in NASA’s interest to support them. 

This effort requires that holdings be coded in XML. As a result, for full-text 

holdings received once the policy goes into effect, PMC requires as-accepted manuscripts to be submitted in XML or converted to XML to enable crawler access.

7.4.6 508 Compliance. 508 compliance will be furnished by the repository manager 

on a paper-by-paper basis on demand; costs will be borne by NASA via its negotiated per-publication reimbursement.

7.5 Preservation 

Publications and metadata will be stored in a NASA domain within the PMC system, 

which will provide long-term preservation and access to the content without charge.

An advantage of storage in XML format is its technology independence and reliable 

migration as technology evolves. 

7.6 Integration into Other Systems

During implementation, integration into other systems will be analyzed and a methodology will be developed to ensure seamless interfacing to the greatest extent possible.

8.0 Metrics, Compliance, and Evaluation

Compliance requirements and consequences for noncompliance will be clearly detailed 

in award instruments and enforced. Publications cited in required reports (e.g., annual 

progress and final reports) must be present in the repository. Publications absent from 

the repository will result in a request to the corresponding author to remedy the defect. 

Ongoing evaluation of compliance and alerting noncompliant authors will be accomplished using progress and final reports and FundRef. 
Peer-Reviewed Publications

19

Compliance with the requirement for deposition of as-accepted papers and metadata 

into PMC for NASA authors will be strengthened via clear promulgation and vigorous 

enforcement of an appropriate Agency NASA Policy Directive (NPD) and NASA Procedural Requirement (NPR). 

9.0 Public Consultation

NASA participated in the open meeting hosted by the National Academy of Sciences 

in May 2013; representatives also participated in numerous meetings conducted by 

OSTP for the purpose of discussions and negotiations with representatives of the publishing industry, professional societies, and other interested parties. These contacts, as 

well as materials submitted by PMC, DOE/PAGES, NASA/STI-NTRS, CDC/Stacks,8

CHORUS, Google Scholar, and AAU-APLU-ARL/SHARE,9 were considered in formulating the strategy presented in this plan. Of those presented, the PMC solution emerged 

as the most mature and the lowest risk for NASA, but attractive features of the distributed solutions (CHORUS, Google Scholar, and SHARE) warrant further attention in 

Phase 2 as they mature and are demonstrated.

NASA will use its established Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA)-chartered 

advisory committees and its standing committees at the National Research Council to 

inform its constituent communities and obtain guidance relevant to the selected PMC 

public access system.

10.0 Interagency Coordination

NASA has participated in discussions with other agencies and will continue to collaborate to ensure that a consistent Government-wide approach is achieved.

11.0 Public Notice

NASA will adhere to established standards for formal public notice of implementation 

of the publication access system. Funded investigators will be informed and bound by 

provisions in their award instruments.

8 CDC: Center for Disease Control and Prevention

9 AAU: Association of American Universities; APLU: Association of Public and Land-grant Universities; 

ARL: Association of Research Libraries; SHARE: SHared Access Research Ecosystem
20

NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research

12.0 Update and Reevaluation of the Plan

The plan will be reevaluated and revised as needed with the recommendations of the 

steering committee in order to provide maximum public access. On initiation of regular 

operation of the repository implementation within PMC, NASA will benefit from NIH’s 

long-range management planning and sustaining engineering and augmentation of that 

system as well as evaluation of new technologies and/or evolving system architectures.

13.0 Timeline for Implementation

NASA Implementation and Schedule on Data and Publication Access

2014 2015

ACTION S O N D J F M A M J J A S O

Evaluate current identified databases 

and determine requirements to enable 

search capability and accessibility to be 

machine‐readable

Begin updating NASA policy and directives 

and developing contract and grant language

Begin building search capability and 

increase accessibility

Identify new datasets from existing Web sites 

and databases

Receive AoA and select publication 

repository platform

Begin implementation of 

publication repository

Incorporate data management requirements 

in solicitations

Develop training toolkit

Communicate and train NASA federally 

funded scientific researchers of new 

data obligations

Implementation complete

14.0 Resources

An estimated budget to support implementation of this policy was requested through the 

Agency’s normal budget development cycle. 
Peer-Reviewed Publications

21

15.0 Additional Material

Acronym List

AAU Association of American Universities

APLU Association of Public and Land-grant Universities

ARL Association of Research Libraries

CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CHORUS Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States

CUI Controlled Unclassified Information

DOE Department of Energy

EOSDIS Earth Observing System Data and Information System

FACA Federal Advisory Committee Act

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NIH National Institutes of Health

NPD NASA Policy Directive

NPR NASA Procedural Requirement

NTRS NASA Technical Reports Server

OCIO Office of the Chief Information Officer

OMB Office of Management and Budget

OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy

PAGES Public Access Gateway for Energy and Science (DOE)

PMC PubMed Central (NIH)

R&T Research and Technology

RD&T Research, Development, and Technology

SBIR Small Business Innovation Research

SBU Sensitive But Unclassified

Scholar Not an acronym (Google)

SHARE SHared Access Research Ecosystem (AAU, APLU, ARL)

Stacks Not an acronym (CDC)

STI Scientific and Technical Information (NASA)

STTR Small Business Technology Transfer

VoR Version of Record

XML Extensible Markup Language
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Headquarters

300 E Street SW

Washington, DC 20546

www.nasa.gov

NP-2015-05-1796-HQ