Free science. NASA laid out open access research papers

NASA launched the PubSpace web portal, which published the results of almost all of its government-funded research (that is, at the expense of taxpayers). If the society paid for the research, the results should be freely available to everyone, judged by the administration.

“We at NASA are excited about the opportunity to expand access to our vast portfolio of scientific and technical publications,” said NASA Deputy Director Dava Newman. “We invite the world community to join us in the exploration of the Earth, airspace and space.”

PubSpace is an archive of original articles from scientific journals that are exempted from paid firewalls and are available without any payment. Articles can be read, analyze the accompanying data and freely download. Each article is also available in PDF format.
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According to the rules of NASA, the publication of scientific articles in the public domain , all authors whose work is at least partially funded by NASA, and if the scientific article is accepted for publication in a scientific journal after April 7, 2008, should be published on the portal. Such a right, but not an obligation, exists for authors who received funding or entered into a financing contract with NASA after October 1, 2015.

In addition, NASA has opened the Data Portal developer portal and has published documentation on the use of programming interfaces (APIs) and code snippets for building applications and visualizing published data sets.

Access to scientific articles is organized through the manuscript publication system of the US Department of Health and Human Services. This portal was organized in 2000 for the publication of full texts, first of all, scientific works of medical subjects, as the most important for society. Over time, other thematic research portals, including PubSpace, were formed on the basis of the PubMed portal.

Not all NASA research papers are published on the portal. An exception is made for research related to US national security. Probably, publish them banned the higher leadership.

But even without these works, there are many interesting things on PubSpace. For example, the study of the 120-meter tsunami in the ancient Martian ocean , which changed the landscape of Mars. Or a study of the effectiveness of physical exercises in space based on the results of the long-term stay of astronauts on the international space station. But statistics on a higher mortality of astronauts who participated in the lunar program "Apollo" from diseases of the cardiovascular system. The study of the redistribution of masses on the surface of the Earth due to climate change.


Redistribution of masses on the Earth's surface due to climate change from April 2002 to March 2015

The study that a diet of dried plums protects against the loss of bone material under the influence of ionizing radiation . This work can be useful not only for astronauts, but also for other people who undergo radiotherapy or constantly eat foods containing higher doses of cesium-137 .

Here is another recent article about organisms that can live on Titan .

In general, there is really a lot of interesting things.

NASA's research focuses on earth and space science, materials science, computer science and electronics, the study of various fuels, radio communications, safety systems and human health. At the moment, 863 scientific papers have been published on the portal.

NASA believes that open access to scientific publications is necessary for better dissemination of the results of basic scientific research, which contributes to scientific progress and the future prosperity of mankind. “Simplifying access to our data will greatly expand the impact of our research,” said NASA Chief Researcher Ellen Stofan. “As scientists and engineers, we build our work on the shoulders of our predecessors.”

The PubSpace portal was launched after a government request from the Office of US Science and Technology Policy, which in 2013 asked the agency to develop a plan to expand public access to research results funded from the federal budget. NASA will continue to work in this direction and promises to report on expanding access to this work in the future.

Publication of scientific works in the public domain is a good decision by NASA, which goes well in line with the latest trends in the development of the scientific community. Authors of scientific works themselves usually want their scientific article to be as accessible as possible to colleagues, but scientific publishers who sell a subscription to scientific journals for as low as $ 2,000 for $ 35,000 hinder this. In May 2016, EU ministers responsible for science and innovations adopted the draft European initiative Innovation Principle, which will finally put an end to the scientific monopoly of journals. Under the new agreements, by 2020, the results of all European scientific research conducted at public expense, will be mandatory laid out in the free access. "Research and innovation generate economic growth, more jobs and offer solutions for social problems," said Sander Dekker, then Secretary of the Netherlands.