Purpose of Call
Open science — opening up the scientific process from idea inception to result — increases access to knowledge and expands opportunities for new voices to participate. Sharing the data, code, and knowledge associated with the scientific process lowers barriers to entry, enables findings to be more easily reproduced, and generates new knowledge at scale.
NASA has made a commitment to advancing the principles of open science to build a more inclusive and open community at NASA and beyond. This is a resolution to work towards a more transparent and collaborative scientific progress, opening data and results to the broader public whenever possible, and incentivizing researchers around the globe to do the same.
To help catalyze and support the cultural change necessary for such an opening of scientific knowledge, NASA has launched the Open-Source Science Initiative (OSSI), a long-term commitment to open science. To spark change and inspire open science engagement, OSSI has created the Transform to Open Science (TOPS) mission and declared 2023 as the Year Of Open Science.
TOPS, a $40 million, five-year program organized by a core team in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD), looks to enable open science by:
- Increasing the reach and visibility of NASA open science collaborations and projects;
- Increasing NASA’s capacity for open science by providing more researchers with open science tools;
- Rewarding researchers for their involvement in open science through a coordinated incentives program; and,
- Doubling the participation of underrepresented groups in NASA science via increased collaboration and inclusive partnerships.
Launching a program such as TOPS is possible thanks to the open science communities’ work over the last couple of decades. Recognizing this work, this meeting seeks participation from individuals actively engaging with open science, open-source software and data, and related practices and communities to serve on a TOPS Community Panel and provide a review of TOPS activities.
Community Panel
The TOPS Community Panel will be a group of approximately 15 open science and open-source community leaders. The panel will provide constructive feedback on TOPS mission, plans, and recent activities. This group will serve as a representative of their community in these conversations; and speak to their experience with open science; lessons learned in conducting open science; and provide input on future steps to be taken by TOPS, TOPS partners, and the greater NASA science community.
Participation may include:
- 1-year commitment to participation on the panel
- Attending a 1.5 day virtual meeting the week of May 16, 2022
- Attending a ~1.5 day meeting ~October 2022
- Providing verbal and/or written feedback on TOPS materials at these meetings
- Sharing concrete and testimonial examples of conducting and/or supporting open science principles and practices
TOPS will reciprocate by:
- Travel reimbursement to any in-person panel events will be provided.
- Non-civil servant panelists will receive a $1200 per day honorarium for panel meetings.
The request for reviewers will close on April 15, 2022. Please send any questions that you have on the TOPS community panel to steven.m.crawford@nasa.gov.
Approach for Selection
NASA OSSI and TOPS are committed to principles of non-discrimination and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor.
OSSI and the TOPS core team are committed to creating an open science community which is diverse in thought, backgrounds, skills and range of expertise. To that end, the group selected for the TOPS Community Panel shall reflect:
- Individuals with diversity of experience, including diversity with respect to race, gender, geography, country of citizenship, academic background, profession and areas of expertise.
Furthermore, to ensure the TOPS Community Panel members are equipped to provide actionable feedback on TOPS activities, the TOPS core team shall consider experience in open science when inviting individuals to join the group. This experience could include, but not be limited to,
- Knowledge and/or experience with open-source software, code sharing practices, and open-source repositories and tools;
- Knowledge and/or experience with data sharing, data repositories, curation and/or creation of open data;
- Knowledge and/or experience with open-access publishing, pre-publication, peer review, academic review and/or tenure processes, replication and reproducibility in scientific results, virtual research environments;
- Participation or leadership in open science communities;
- Participation or leadership in diverse communities dedicated to advancing diversity in STEM, diversity in academia; and,
- Participation or leadership in community organizing around equity and inclusion in STEM, climate justice, or citizen science.
As a final note: please be aware that this is an open volunteer opportunity, and is not tied to a specific solicitation. Volunteering does not commit you to serve as a reviewer, nor is NASA obligated to invite you to serve on a future panel.