C302: NASA SMD Information Policy: Let's All Be FAIR

Tuesday plenary 1: Contributed talk

When

8:45 – 9 a.m., Nov. 7, 2023

Where

Theme: User Experience for astronomical software

pretalx

The NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Information Policy (whimsically named "SPD-41a") prescribes that NASA data be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). Despite the catchy acronym, these aims are not new: the scientific community has in principle always strived for data to meet these criteria. Of course, the devil is in the details. There is no "FAIR" specification or unit test to pass, so what "findable" or "accessible" might mean will vary between user groups, communities from different backgrounds, different archives, and even different datasets within an archive. (Certainly no one wants to think the data they make available are not easy to find.) This talk will explore these ideas in more detail, discuss NASA’s efforts in implementing FAIR for SMD data, and an overview of how FAIR astronomical data actually are.

Contacts

Demitri Muna, NASA