tops_faq.md

TOPS FAQ

This page contains a selection of questions and answers for the TOPS May 2022 community events that TOPS believes may benefit the wider community. Both the questions and responses have been edited for length and clarity; a full transcript of the event is available in our GitHub community forum and community panel pages.

General Questions on TOPS

NASA TOPS is a $40M mission over 5 years. How will those funds be spent?

TOPS is across all of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). The majority of the funding is to support training activities to help the SMD community learn about Open Sciences. This includes training that is tailored to the needs of the scientific communities of SMD. Opportunities will be announced that are available to all directorates and the different directorates are participating in the design and development of the project.

What are the concrete objectives with the TOPS mission? What outcomes and deliverables are you pursuing?

TOPS goals are to enable

1. 20,000 individuals to earn an Open Science Badge,
2. lead to at least five major discoveries, and
3. increase participation of underrepresented groups by two-fold.

For goal 1, we will know the exact amount of people completing the course thanks to registration. For goal 2, we plan to solicit proposals in 2023 for high risk, high reward, science projects, across all of NASA science (e.g., planetary, heliophysics, astrophysics, biological and physical sciences, and Earth science), that are open from inception. These projects will be required to follow open science best practices. We will be able to measure success by whether they achieve the goals stated in their proposals, and contribute to a major advance in their field. For goal 3, we have internal metrics that we hope to make public, and can track participation by under-represented communities on NASA science teams, funded proposals, committee, and review panels. While these specific metrics may allow us to see if we reach our stated goals, we need to be able to measure our progress against our objectives as well: increasing adoption of open science and increasing participation in science by historically excluded groups. That requires a more nuanced set of metrics that we are continuing to develop.

What is the plan for collaborating across groups?

Open-source science (OSS) is a part of open science. Open-source science is a commitment to the open sharing of software, data, and knowledge (algorithms, papers, documents, ancillary information) from the start of research activities. The principles of OSS are to make publicly funded scientific research transparent, inclusive, accessible, and reproducible. All of these aspects of open-source science are intentionally a part of open science.

What does public engagement with open science look like for people who don't want to be scientists or coders?

We realize that the road to making open science a reality doesn’t begin and end with academics and NASA scientists. We want to reach science-interested populations too! Citizen science provides an opportunity for the general science-interested public to get involved with scientific research to address societal needs, particularly those at a regional or local level, and to advance innovation.

Are engagement plans aimed within the US or internationally?

TOPS is engaging both nationally and internationally. The focus for 2023 is national in scope; yet, we continue to engage and collaborate with other international space agencies and organizations to ensure the open science reach is more broadly distributed.

Have actionable plans been made to ensure that communities historically excluded from research are reached by TOPS?

Yes; plans have been developed that include engagement and support for these communities. A core value within the TOPS team is to meet historically excluded groups where they are, and we will continue to follow through with this value for the next 5 years. We are working to have a strong presence at conferences that focus on historically excluded groups. We have partnered with NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) to support different activities such as funding 3-year NASA internships and to develop future solicitations. Our TOPS Community Panel includes leaders in open science and is 50% women and 70% people of color. We will also be developing further plans based on the engagement and feedback we receive. We welcome suggestions, contributions, and comments through our GitHub site or by contacting us directly.

Is there a forum or mechanism to share experiences on open science with this community?

The TOPS GitHub is a great source of information, and is also a great way to share experiences and ask questions. The discussion can be found at https://github.com/nasa/Transform-to-Open-Science/discussions .

Where can I go to get more information on NASA open data policy?

Please refer to the official website at https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/science-data/science-information-policy. .

How will you enable open meetings? Will they all be virtual? Will funding be provided for volunteers to present at science meetings?

We are enabling open meetings by providing an option for virtual attendance, including the ability to submit questions. We have plans to expand participation at NASA science team meetings; please subscribe to our listserv to hear more.

Where can we get TOPS stickers and pins?

You can visit us at conferences to find our latest educational and informational resources. We are also working on a distribution mechanism to share resources with the full community, so join our listserv to stay tuned!

Incentives and Recognition

What are NASA's plans to make sure that the extra effort required to make work open is properly recognized?

There are different ways to recognize effort. First, there is financial recognition. If research is open from inception, and openness has been planned and budgeted for at the proposal stage, then being open isn’t a substantial extra effort. So, with regards to cost, the effort will be recognized by funding it in the budget. Then there is professional recognition. If one put in the effort to be open, one should certainly be recognized. There is already a lot of evidence that by being open, science has more impact and more citations. But we are planning additional specific activities to incentivize and recognize open science activities. Further, TOPS is working with partners to create awards specifically created to recognize scientific achievements in open science.

How will researchers who are used to working in more closed frameworks be incentivized to share their work products?

Many researchers adopt open science principles as they become familiar with them and as they become best practices in their community. TOPS first goal is to increase the understanding of open science practices to support the culture shift. SMD is also supporting incentives to adopt open science through solicitations such as the F.8 Supplement for Open Source Software and also developing initiatives that support open science so that it is easy to share the scientific information that is produced. It is important to note that this shift is not automatic; this process will require some experimentation to see what works and what does not. It is also imperative that TOPS get feedback from the community to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of its efforts.

Can we consider and incorporate published literature in the form of books, book chapters, and papers related to open science?

Absolutely! We believe that to be successful in spreading the word on open science we need to be as visible as possible, including by publishing articles, papers, and blog posts about our successes and failures.

Can the public participate in solicitations?

NASA solicits research proposals through Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES). More information on ROSES is available on https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/grant-solicitations.

Getting Involved

How can you become part of the Community Advisory Panel for TOPS?

The Community Panel for 2022 has been selected. However, each year we will have an open call for new members. Please continue to monitor the GitHub as all announcements will be provided there.

How can students at different levels get involved?

Anyone with an interest in open science is welcome to participate in TOPS! Sign up for the TOPS newsletter to keep up-to-date with the latest TOPS activities, including student internships. Contribute to the discussion on our GitHub. Further, the open science curriculum that TOPS is developing will be free and open for all regardless of disciplinary or education level.

Can you discuss how research and data-driven artists can further science?

One way to broaden participation is through making science more accessible and the arts are one way to do that. We hope to have a Space Apps challenge focused on STEAM initiatives to get people from all of the world thinking about this.

How does citizen science connect to open science?

We realize that the road to making open science a reality doesn’t begin and end with academics and NASA scientists. We want to reach science-interested populations too! Citizen science provides an opportunity for the general science-interested public to get involved with scientific research to address societal needs, particularly those at a regional or local level, and to advance innovation.

How can data scientists and machine learning experts help further open science?

There are open science principles that those working with code and data can incorporate into their work, even if it is not “traditional” scientific research. They can make the underlying data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (which is known as the FAIR principles). Any code which is developed should be as open as possible (e.g., open-source or white-listing); including the creation of clear documentation so that others can build on your work.