Public Access to Federally 

Funded Research

Louis Barbier, OCS

July 17, 2023

1
NASA’s Perspective on the 2022 OSTP Public Access Memo

• NASA strongly supports the intent of 

the 2022 OSTP Public Access Memo, 

Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable 

Access to Federally Funded Research

• Promoting the full and open sharing of 

scientific research results with research 

communities, private industry, 

academia, and the general public is one 

of NASA’s long-standing core values. 

2
NASA’s Approach: Open Science Core Values

• Openness is fundamental, security is essential, and freedom and integrity are crucial

• Increase the accessibility, inclusion, and reproducibility of NASA scientific activities

• When possible, minimize the burden both within NASA and for our research 

communities

• NASA’s Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) is leading an Agency-wide update to the 2014 

NASA plan

• The draft updated Public Access Plan was submitted to OSTP for review on Feb. 21, 

2023

3
A SHIFT IN THE WAY SCIENCE IS DONE

4
Summary 

Agency-wide group efforts to date:

○ Reviewed NASA Open Access Policy – NPD 2230.1 Research Data and Publication Access - no 

changes were needed to be compliant with the new OSTP memo of 2022

○ Revised NASA’s 2014 Open Access Plan for consistency with the OSTP 2022 memo

■ Submitted revision on Feb. 21, 2023 to OSTP

■ Significant changes to be expected:

● Removing requirement for a one-year embargo on publications

● Software (s/w) guidance for the process for releasing and maintaining s/w 

(consistent with multiple existing NASA policy documents covering s/w)

● Integrating persistent identifiers for data and software with publications

● Encouraging sharing of data that goes beyond a publication

The following slides represent a summary of key principles and should not be relied upon 

without reference to the underlying policies

5
6

Key Points

OSTP Open Access Memo Reference

These links are to the White House article about the memo signed August 

2022 to ensure that federally funded research is freely available 

without delay. This memo is the next step after the 2013 memo which 

charged federal agencies with developing and implementing a plan to 

increase public access to federally funded research.

6

Open Access Publication 

The memo requires that any federally funded research must be published in 

journals that allow for open access to its articles immediately upon 

publication.

Open Access to Data Used in Publications

The memo also says that these publications must be made without an 

embargo on the data. This data is specifically that which was used to make 

the publication.
7

Impacts to NASA funded Scientists

Publishing Impact

NASA Science Programs will need to provide its scientists with additional 

budget to cover open access fees. Need to be certain we do not unwittingly 

preclude publication of NASA science in top journals due to the open access 

policies. 

7

Non-Published Data 

The memo also calls on agencies to develop an approach on how to share 

non-published data. 

Future Contracts, Grants and Agreements

We need to be sure that future funding calls make clear that federally funded 

research must follow federal laws and OMB policies, including the open 

access publication and associated data rules. This is regardless of the rules 

of the publisher. This must be part of the budgets submitted in future 

proposals.
8

What is subject to the Public Access Policy?

Applies to all research generating scientific data, including but not 

limited to:

Research Projects funded through grants

Small Business SBIR/STTR

Internal research at Centers

8

Does not apply to research projects not generating scientific data or non-research 

projects, including but not limited to:

Training 

Fellowships

Conferences

Research-Related Infrastructure Programs
Scientific Publications

Peer-reviewed publications shall be made freely available at the time of publication. This supersedes 

NASA’s previous guidance which allowed for a one-year embargo on publications

For authors who wish to publish in an open access journal, NASA allows all Article Processing Charges (APCs) 

to be included in the grant proposal budget

This plan includes all peer-reviewed scientific research publications authored or co-authored by researchers receiving 

NASA-appropriated funds. 

 This includes both civil servant and non-civil servant researchers, both intramural and extramural researchers

 Submission of a publication and metadata to a designated repository will be the responsibility of the lead author, 

or NASA-funded co-author if not the lead author 

 Metadata should be coded so that it can be crawled by automated search engines in order to facilitate 

discovery

9
Sharing Publications

For articles that are published as Open Access the final published article (i.e., the publisher’s version of 

record) may be made publicly available in the STI Repository through one of the following mechanisms:

• For articles published as Open Access by journal publishers participating in the Clearinghouse for the 

Open Research of the United States (CHORUS), the published article will be made publicly available in 

the STI Repository on behalf of the authors. Authors should verify that their article is available in the STI 

Repository following its publication, in which case no further action is required by the author.

• For articles published as Open Access that are indexed in the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS), 

no further action is required by the researcher to comply with public access requirements for the article at 

this time.

• For articles published as Open Access that are not covered by CHORUS or ADS, authors must submit 

either the final published article or the author’s copy of an accepted manuscript to the STI Repository via 

the PubSpace submission page no later than the article’s publication date. Use this link to submit your 

publication as an attachment: https://sti.nasa.gov/sti-contact-form/?RequestType=PublicAccess

• List of CHORUS publisher members is here: https://www.chorusaccess.org/about/our-members/

10
11 Information, Data, & Analytics Services (IDAS) 

• Green – Author self-archiving an early version of the article online. 

Once the peer-review process has been completed by a journal, the 

author posts an accepted manuscript to their own website, an 

institutional repository, a funder repository, or central open access 

repository (i.e., arXiv.org). 

• Gold - Publishers that make all their articles and related content 

(supplemental information and data) available for free on their 

website. The journals are funded by article processing fees (APCs) 

which are paid for by the authors or research sponsor (fees can range 

up to $5,000 per article). 

• Hybrid - Journals partially funded by subscriptions and only provide 

open access for the specific articles where the author paid a 

publication fee (APC). This option usually costs more than Gold OA.

Open Access Models
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Scientific Data – definition*

“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 does 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.”

12 *Per OMB Circular A110 
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Data and Software Management Plans

A Data Management Plan (DMP) shall provide a plan for making research data that underlie the 

results and findings in peer-reviewed publications digitally accessible at the time of publication

• including the data as supplementary information to the published article 

• through NASA archives 

• other means (specify)

• The published article should indicate how these data can be accessed.

13

A Software Management Plan (SMP) that describes whether and how software generated 

through the course of the proposed research will be shared and preserved

• must describe how software sharing and preservation will enable validation of 

published results, or 

• how such results could be validated if software are not shared or preserved
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Limitations on Data Sharing

Data Management and Sharing Plans should maximize appropriate sharing: 

Justifiable ethical, legal, and technical factors for limiting sharing of data include: 

Informed consent will not permit or limits scope of sharing or use 

Privacy or safety of research participants would be compromised and available protections insufficient

Explicit federal, state, local, or Tribal law, regulation, or policy prohibits disclosure 

Restrictions imposed by existing or anticipated agreements with other parties 

Datasets cannot practically be digitized with reasonable efforts

Reasons not generally justifiable to limit sharing include: 

Data are considered too small 

Researchers anticipate data will not be widely used

Data are not thought to have a suitable repository 

Additional considerations: 

NASA respects Tribal sovereignty and supports responsible management/sharing of AI/AN participant data

SBIR/STTR Program Policy Directive permits withholding data for 20 years, as stipulated in agreements and consistent with 

program goals 14
Supplemental Information: 

Elements of a Data Management Plan

• Data type

– Identifying data to be preserved and shared

• Related tools, software, code 

– Tools and software needed to access and manipulate data

• Standards 

– Standards to be applied to scientific data and metadata

• Data preservation, access, timelines 

– Repository to be used, persistent unique identifier, and when/ how long data will be available

• Access, distribution, reuse considerations 

– Description of factors for data access, distribution, or reuse

• Oversight of data management 

– Plan compliance will be monitored/ managed and by whom
Monitoring Compliance with DMPs

• Approved DMP becomes a Term and Condition of Award

• Annual progress reports

– Include status and changes

• NASA reviews compliance annually

– Failure to comply may result in an enforcement action, including additional 

special terms and conditions or termination of award, and may affect future 

funding decisions

• Plans may be made publicly available in the future
• No later than publication of research results

– For data published in peer-reviewed journals

• No later than the end of the award period

– For data not published in peer-reviewed journals

When to share data?

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18

Open Data Portal

NASA’s data portal: 

https://data.nasa.gov/

https://www.nasa.gov/open/data.html
19

Allowable Costs for data management

Reasonable costs allowed in budget requests (must be 

incurred during the performance period)

–Curating data/developing supporting documentation

–Preserving/sharing data through repositories

–Local data management considerations

NOT considered data sharing costs 

–Infrastructure costs typically included in indirect costs

–Costs associated with the routine conduct of research (e.g., 

costs of gaining access to research data)

Over time NASA hopes to learn more about what 

constitutes reasonable costs for various data 

management and sharing activities
20

Scientific Software 

This plan applies to unrestricted, scientific software that is developed to support the scientific processing and analysis of

data produced as part of a mission, unless restricted due to Agency or Federal policy.

Scientific software includes computer programs in source and object code that provide users some degree of scientific 

utility or produce a scientific result or service. This includes the software that is necessary to validate research findings, 

associated with scholarly publications. It may also include not only the source code, but also metadata describing the 

software, descriptions of how to use the software, and associated software documentation. 

Scientific Software does not include:

• Software developed only for preliminary analysis, plans for future research, or communication with colleagues; or 

commercial (COTS) software 

• Software restricted from release due to law or security considerations. This would include, but not limited to, export 

Control, ITAR, CUI, materials necessary to be held confidential, privacy or medical information, or materials with limited 

release due to security concerns.

• Software restricted from release due to intellectual property considerations. This would include, but not limited to, 

copyright, trade secrets, commercial information, patent protected software, or similar information which is protected 

under law.
Software as part of the scientific process

Stages of reproducibility:

1. Software is not mentioned

2. Software is mentioned, but not 

described

3. Software is described, but not 

made available or by request only 

4. Software is made openly available 

5. ...with a permissive license 

6. ...with good documentation and 

testing

7. Bonus: Contributed to a 

generalized package

Challenges in reproducibility:

● Data and plots are shared, 

but it isn’t clear how the plots 

are derived from the data

● Student leaves the field or the 

software is lost

● Algorithms are described but 

with insufficient detail to 

reproduce

● Configurations or steps are 

not shared. 
SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT PLANS 

SMP shall include:

o The types of software to be produced in the course of the project

o The standards to be used for software development

o Policies for accessing and sharing the software, including provisions for appropriate 

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

requirements

o Policies and provisions for re-use, re-distribution, and the production of derivatives 

o Plans for providing access to the software used in any science publication

o Plans for archiving and preserving of the software, as appropriate (use of existing databases 

or public repositories will be strongly encouraged), including how long the software will be 

preserved or maintained

o And shall make publicly available appropriate metadata describing the software
Advantages of Open Source Scientific Software

● Increased reproducibility

● Reuse

● Curation and archiving

● Better understanding of 

the results 

● Credit
Tools for Open Science

Version Control Platforms

GitHub, Gitlab, bitbucket

Software Archiving

Software Heritage, 

Zenodo, ASCL

Software Publishing 

and Curation

JOSS, ADS, AAS, ...

Software is Fragile

Unlike words carved in stone, it 

can be deleted or get corrupted

Note: Non-NASA repositories must be approved for use 

by OCIO.
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OSTP Memo ~ 

Feb 2013

Expanding Public 

Access to the 

Results of 

Federally Funded 

Research

2013

2014

NASA Plan for Increasing 

Access to the Results of 

Scientific Research

Expanded the breadth of NASA’s 

open-access culture to include 

data and publications for all of 

the scientific research that the 

Agency sponsors

2016

NPD 2230.1 Research 

Data and Publication 

Access

Basic policy for the 

implementation of 

processes to ensure 

public access to 

scientific peer-reviewed 

publications and data 

sets

2019

SMD Strategy for Data 

Management and Computing for 

Groundbreaking (SDMCG) 

Science

Advances the management and 

computation capabilities to 

support groundbreaking science 

at NASA

2021

SMD Scientific Information 

Policy (SPD-41)

Policy was created based on 

recommendations from SMD's 

2019 SDMCG and is based on 

existing Government directives 

and NASA and SMD policies 

https://go.usa.gov/xtNTJ 

2022

NASA SMD Open-source 

Science Initiative and 

Transform to Open Science 

(TOPS) mission 

Advance open science 

policies, 

cyberinfrastructure, tools, 

and communities

OSTP Memo ~ Aug 2022

No embargo period for federally 

funded research publications

Updated SMD Scientific 

Information Policy ~Nov 

22 (SPD-41a)

Updates to the 2021 

policy, aligns with 

requirements of 2022 

OSTP 2022 memo

2023

NASA’s Year of Open Science 

NPD = NASA Policy Directive; SMD = NASA’s Science Mission Directorate; SPD = SMD Policy Document

Updated draft NASA Public 

Access Plan

Submitted to OSTP, compliant 

with OSTP 2022 Memo
26

Questions?
27 Information, Data, & Analytics Services (IDAS) 

• Diamond/Platinum – Journals that publish open access without 

charging authors a fee. Publishers require funding from other 

sources, such as advertisements, academic institutions, societies, or 

government grants. 

• Bronze – The articles are free to read on the publisher’s website, but 

do not have a clear license (generally not available for reuse). 

• Black – The unauthorized digital copying of paywalled content and 

making it freely available (large-scale copyright infringement). Some 

examples are #ICanHazPDF or SciHub.

• Gratis and Libre (used in the Budapest Open Access initiative)

• Gratis – free online access to read, without re-use rights

• Libre – free online access to read, plus some addition re-use rights

Open Access Models
28 Information, Data, & Analytics Services (IDAS) 

• CORE: https://core.ac.uk/

• CrossRef: https://search.crossref.org/

• Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB): https://doabooks.org/

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): https://doaj.org/

• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/

• Open Access Directory (OAD): https://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Main_Page

• SCOAP3: https://scoap3.org/

• Sherpa Services: https://beta.sherpa.ac.uk/

Open Access Resources