Open Source Software Policy Options for NASA Earth and Space Sciences (2018) / Chapter Skim
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3 Past and Current Policies
3 Past and Current Policies
Pages 28-47
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From page 28... ...
It could occur more quickly and gain acceptance more broadly if policy is implemented carefully by reviewing lessons learned from existing policies for both data and software. In this chapter, the committee reviews examples of existing data policies, data management plans, and software policies and management plans for NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD)
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: Mission data will be made fully available to the public by the investigator team through a NASA-approved data archive (e.g., the Planetary Data System, Atmospheric Data Center, High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive R esearch Center, Solar Data Analysis Center, Space Physics Data Facility, etc.) , in usable form, in the minimum time necessary but, barring exceptional circumstances, within six months following its collection.5 NASA's open data policy has led to increased access to public investments in research and driven investments within NASA to develop infrastructure, such as formal data archive centers.
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Lessons Learned: Changes in agency data policies prompted changes in accepted practices regarding shar ing of data. NASA's investments in infrastructure allowed NASA SMD to realize the benefits from an open data policy by providing a robust and comprehensive data system for the scientific research community, policy makers, and the public to have consistent access to curated data.
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3.2.1 NASA The 2009 Earth Venture-1 spacecraft mission announcement was the first NASA funding announcement to call for a DMP: it asked proposed missions to give a "schedule-based end-to-end data management plan, including approaches for data retrieval, validation, preliminary analysis, public release and archiving."11 Then, research 11 NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences -- 2009.
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From page 32... ...
, which introduced the need for metadata and data formats.13,14 In 2012, three Earth Science and one Mars announcement all included required DMPs.15 One of the Earth Science DMP requirements was expanded from a previous version to include more details on data quality. Individual program managers began realizing the importance of a data management plan before the SMD did, and they began asking for DMPs.
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From page 33... ...
Today, there is a consistent data deposit policy across the entire NSF Office of Polar Programs, includng the Arctic Section, with some limited exceptions and minor variance across programs. The Arctic i Data Center is funded through a renewable cooperative agreement to archive data and to provide curation services.
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3.2.3 USGS USGS began a program in 2010 to develop formal data management plans with three science centers.23 Based on this work, in 2012 USGS recognized the need to develop a comprehensive DMP template and funded the three centers to develop one, and to establish best practices, data standards, and lay the foundation for USGS-wide integration. This pilot recognized the importance of policy implementation, providing guidance for scientists, and establishing clear program policy, guidance, roles, oversight, and review mechanisms.
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The first time a ROSES funding announcement references this ESDS OSS software policy is in "A.42 Advancing Collaborative Connections for Earth System Science." The announcement requires, in the description of the proposal contents, that the proposer "describe the software development approach and lifecycle" and "provide an open source software development plan, identify an open source software license and state an open source software release milestone."28 In other parts of the 2017 NASA research announcement, the OSS policy is not mentioned. The guidelines also do not state where in the final proposal the software development plan is placed and whether or not it is contained within the 15-page limit.
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From page 36... ...
available an extensive library of general and mission-specific software35 and the Kepler/K2 missions support a suite of data processing software through the Guest Observer Office.36 Heliophysics Similar to the Astrophysics Division, the committee was unable to find a requirement on software or models developed for any of the currently competed NASA Heliophysics programs, but, as stated earlier, ROSES 2018 does require proposals to include a data management plan. The NASA Living with a Star (LWS)
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SOURCE: Enidia Santiago, "Innovative Technology Partnerships Office: Software Release Process," presentation to the Technology Education and Assessment Seminar, December 7, 2015. documented, and made available to potential users."38 The committee notes that these requirements mention only models and software modules without making specific reference to "open source." Thus, there does not seem to be any requirement to make the source code open.
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Task Force report48 had 11 major recommendations to support the research, development, and maintenance of OSS infrastructure.49 SSE was encouraged to develop a multilevel long-term program of support of open source scientific software elements; provide leadership in promoting software verification, validation, sustainability, and reproducibility; develop a consistent policy on OSS that promotes scientific discovery and encourages innovation; support software collaborations among all of its divisions, related federal agencies, and private industry; obtain community input on software priorities and encourage best practices; explore the legal and technical issues with respect to the different open source licenses; promote discussion among its own personnel and with leadership at institutions where its principal investigators are employed; and develop, acquire, and apply metrics for review of SSE projects that are complementary to the standard criterion of intellectual merit. These recommendations have not yet been implemented widely.
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The Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Software Release Process for Unrestricted Public Release provides procedures that ARL government personnel must follow when releasing software source code and software-related 51 See https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2013/nsf13538/nsf13538.htm.
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USGS software releases are made available publicly at no cost and in the public domain. Not all USGS software is suitable for release to the public, including software developed for use on internal Bureau systems or software that has privacy, confidentiality, licensing, security, or other constraints that would restrict release.
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Community Coordinated Modeling Center The Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) 64 was established in 2000 by a multiagency partnership including NASA Heliophysics and NSF, and it hosts an expanding repository of heliophysics research modeling software and coupled modeling chains (Figure 3.4)
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The CCMC staff is permitted to modify model software only for the following purposes: adapting models to CCMC-specific hardware or converting model input/output formats to CCMC-specific formats. Other types of code modifications require explicit permission from model developers on a case-by-case basis.
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. While delivering software to the CCMC is now the accepted practice, it took more than 5 years of evolutionary transition to achieve community acceptance of the CCMC and to go from 1 model to 15.
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SOURCE: Simulation results have been provided by the Com munity Coordinated Modeling Center at Goddard Space Flight Center through their public Runs on Request system (http:// ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov)
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To address such requests, the 67 G Toth et al., 2005, Space Weather Modeling Framework: A new tool for the space science community, Journal of Geophsyical Research Space Physics, 110:A12226, doi:10.1029/2005JA011126.
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data policy states that they are Committed to promoting full, open, and timely access to the environmental data, associated metadata, and derived data products that underlie scientific findings (see the 2013 AMS policy statement)
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Among others, the journal Astronomy and Computing recommends that the software developed to produce results in a paper be made accessible.74 The Journal of Open Source Software, on the other hand, was designed to provide a way for open-software developers to obtain citations for their software. The authors submit a short article about their software (required to have an OSI-approved license)
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