Science Information Policy

The information produced as part of NASA’s scientific research activities represents a significant public investment. NASA holds this information as a public trust to increase knowledge and serve the public good. This information includes publications, data, and software created in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. It is SMD policy, consistent with NASA and Federal policy, that information produced from SMD-funded scientific research activities be made publicly available.

To help provide guidance to our communities, SMD has created SPD-41: The Scientific Information Policy. The policy was created based on recommendations from SMD’s Strategy for Data Management and Computing for Groundbreaking Science 2019-2024 and is based on existing Government directives and NASA and SMD policies.

For some additional information and clarification of the policy, please see the Scientific Information Policy FAQ. This document will continue to be updated and please feel free to submit questions to HQ-SMD-SPD41@mail.nasa.gov.

SPD-41 represents an early step in implementation of the Strategy for Data Management and Computing for Ground Breaking Science 2019-2024. The policy represents our best understanding of the current practices, and each division will be developing specific guidance relevant to each of their communities. To help with the process, SMD will be releasing a Request for Information for feedback on the implementation to the information policy as well on the proposed enhancements to SPD-41 to increase the accessibility of information.

The following resources also provide further information about how to make NASA information more accessible:

Please direct questions or corrections on this page to SATA@nasa.gov

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