NASA is releasing research papers to public for free

[RainDreamer]

https://www.nasa.gov/open/researchaccess/pubspace

NASA-funded research has been recently released to the public access for free, while it was blocked by a paywall before. This includes research funded in 2016 and afterward, and exclude any "patents, publications that contain material governed by personal privacy, export control, proprietary restrictions, or national security law or regulations ".

You can find them in the link below, happy reading.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/?term="nasa+funded"[Filter]

[UmbralRaptor]

As it should be.

[Shpaget]

29 minutes ago, UmbralRaptor said:

As it should be.

Hmmm.

While I wholeheartedly agree that it's awesome to have this stuff released, I don't think that, given the current socioeconomic and copyright/patent driven environment, the release of this sort of material is necessarily mandatory. Remember, NASA is a US government body, not an international non profit entity and in a country that is so relying on patents and copyright, this is certainly a surprising move.

Anyway, I just skimmed the list of articles and there is truly a wide variety of subjects, from astrophysics to dried plums. Will be fun to go through it in detail.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Shpaget

[Nibb31]

What are you on about? All NASA research has always been public domain. It's a government agency, so it legally has to be.

[razark]

10 minutes ago, Nibb31 said:

All NASA research has always been public domain.

This.  Unless it falls under certain conditions, it's public domain.

(Of course, "public domain" does not mean "easy to access".)

 

32 minutes ago, Shpaget said:

NASA is a US government body...

 

That's exactly why it's public domain.  The people paid for it, the people should have access to it.  (Unless it tells foreign countries how to build missiles, or certain portions of them.  Every NASA information  release is supposed to go through Export Control checks.)

Edited August 22, 2016 by razark

[Shpaget]

"All reasearch, always" is most certainly is not the case. There are plenty of classified projects.

Also, the very existence of Export Control is a proof of some data being witheld from the public.

And then there is access that razark mentions.

 

"But the plans were on display..." 
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”

“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard."

[Streetwind]

Made a thread about this three days ago, guys... it's even still on the first page.

 

58 minutes ago, Nibb31 said:

What are you on about? All NASA research has always been public domain. It's a government agency, so it legally has to be.

This specific library here is not about NASA internal projects, but about NASA-funded research by independent teams.

[Nibb31]

4 hours ago, Streetwind said:

Made a thread about this three days ago, guys... it's even still on the first page.

 

This specific library here is not about NASA internal projects, but about NASA-funded research by independent teams.

A research paper, to be accepted, must be peer-reviewed and published. A research paper that is kept secret isn't a paper. Any of these published paper have been freely accessible by any library, and probably most of them were already in various NASA servers. If you are qualified enough to be able to read and understand science papers, then surely you have access to a library.

What this news seems to be about is an online search engine, which is certainly a good thing, not releasing previously unreleased content.

This is like the "news" a couple of months back of NASA releasing "unpublished photos" of Apollo on Flickr, when those photos had been available in the Apollo Archives at nasa.gov since the 1990's. For some people, if something isn't on a flashy website, then it doesn't exist.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Nibb31

[RainDreamer]

6 hours ago, Nibb31 said:

What are you on about? All NASA research has always been public domain. It's a government agency, so it legally has to be.

It was available publicly on peer reviewed journals, but not for free. Access to the papers required subscription. Now it is free for the public to access, including those not affiliated with institution that has subscription to scientific journals.

And any other research funded by NASA from now on will get the same treatment (aside from some as mentioned in op), and will be available for the public with no cost.

[Streetwind]

Yep, it's the "for free" part that's relevant here.