A
Statement of Task
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will establish an ad hoc committee to investigate and recommend best practices for NASA as it considers whether to establish an open code and open models policy, complementary to its current open data policy. In carrying out the study the committee will:
- Review and describe examples of code/modeling policies developed by research teams and communities in the NASA-supported disciplines of Earth Science and Applications from Space, the Space Sciences, and other research communities, as appropriate;
- Develop a set of lessons learned from these established approaches paying particular attention to issues such as, but not limited to, proprietary, export control, code/model maintenance, and documentation considerations;
- Define and describe options for policies on open codes and open models for research supported by NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and assess the pros and cons of these options from the perspective of the research community and the interests of NASA; and
- Recommend a set of best practices for NASA to consider should SMD decide to adopt an open code/open model policy for research supported by the agency. The committee may also choose to present alternate sets of best practices rather than just one recommended set.