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Earth as seen from the International Space Station (ISS)

Public Access

Publication Management | Journal Article Versions | STI Program Involvement | Important Links | Contact Info

What is Public Access

The Public Access initiative is part of the agency’s framework for increasing public access to scientific publications and digital scientific data.

OSTP Memorandum

The Public Access initiative follows the release of White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) memorandum “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research,” launch to ensure federally funded research is available to the public within one year of publication.

Public Access to Results of NASA-Funded Research

NASA answered the OSTP mandate by creating:

Together, they outline a framework for activities to increase public access to scientific publications and digital scientific data resulting from NASA-funded research.

Publication Management

All NASA-funded researchers (both civil servant and non-civil servant) are required launch to ensure that copies of publications and associated data are made available in NASA’s designated public access repository, PubSpace launch . This excludes patents, publications that contain material governed by personal privacy, export control, proprietary restrictions, or national security law or regulations.

PubSpace launch is NASA’s designated public access repository. It is a collection of NASA-funded scholarly publications within the STI Repository launch , aiming to increase access to federally funded research in accordance with NASA Public Access Policy launch . The collection enables free public access to NASA’s peer-reviewed scholarly publications, including accepted manuscripts and publisher version of record, after the designated publisher embargo period.  

NASA has entered into a partnership agreement with the Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States (CHORUS) publishing group, which serves as a component to the PubSpace Collection. NASA researchers who publish in a CHORUS member’s journal can now more easily satisfy the  Agency’s requirements for public access launch .

Guidance for how to locate publications in PubSpace and how to submit publications that are not available from CHORUS can be found on the Submit to PubSpace page launch .

Journal Article Versions Explained

  • Preprint – The journal article version that is submitted to the journal publisher to request acceptance and publication.
  • Accepted Manuscript – The version of the journal article that has been accepted for publication by a journal publisher and includes changes requested by the publisher and made by the author during the peer-review process. It typically includes the same content as the published article in the journal but frequently (not always) does not include the publisher’s form or format. This is the version collected for PubSpace.
  • Reprint – The version that is published in the journal by the publisher. It will typically have the date of publication and volume number. Some Federal agencies and publishers also call these the Version of Record manuscript.

STI Program Involvement

The NASA STI Program manages several areas of public access to research as part of our mission to support the advancement of knowledge and contributing to U.S. competitiveness in space science and aerospace research and development.

The STI Program supports public access to research by:

  • Staffing the NASA Public Access Help Desk
  • Providing support to NASA-funded researchers
  • Maintaining a comprehensive collection of NASA-authored and NASA-funded peer-reviewed publications in the NASA STI Repository launch , including the PubSpace Collection

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the NASA Public Access Help Desk.

NASA Public Access Help Desk

Contact Form: Public Access Help Desk

US Government ORCID Consortium Logo The NASA STI Program manages NASA’s US Government ORCID Consortium membership. The partnership provides the ability to manage Persistent Identifiers (PIDs), enhance services to the STI Repository, and align NASA submission processes with common publishing practices. Learn more about the US Government ORCID Consortium launch .