NASA-funded research articles are now available online for free
Want to know more about life on Mars? If yes, NASA has some good news for all those science lovers out there.
NASA just announced that it is making all its publicly funded research available online for free. In other words, any published research funded by the space agency will now be available at no cost on a new portal called PubSpace, than anybody can access. NASA-funded research articles such as the effects of space station living on the hair follicles of astronauts to the chances of life on one of Saturn’s moons can now be found by the public on the new portal.
Currently, there are just over 850 NASA-funded articles available on PubSpace, which is operated by the National Institutes of Health and also comprises research from a number of other federal agencies. However, this number is expected to increase as more articles are added to the database. Further, research that relates to national security do not make to this portal.
This free online archive comes in response to a new NASA policy, which requires all NASA-funded articles in peer-reviewed journals to be posted for free online within one year of their publication.
“At NASA, we are celebrating this opportunity to extend access to our extensive portfolio of scientific and technical publications,” NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman said in a statement. “Through open access and innovation we invite the global community to join us in exploring Earth, air, and space.”
“Making our research data easier to access will greatly magnify the impact of our research,” added NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan. “As scientists and engineers, we work by building upon a foundation laid by others.”
For long, research funded by NASA has been accessible online. However, in the past, much of it was often available but only via a paywall. In 2013, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy directed NASA and other agencies to increase public accessibility to government-backed scientific research. In May this year, European Union’s Competitiveness Council agreed on an initiative to try to make all European scientific papers freely available by 2020.
Here’s the full list of NASA-funded studies currently available on PubSpace.
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