Now Anyone Can Access NASA-funded Research

NASA has a new gift for space junkies.

The US space agency has announced that it will be archiving research data at a web portal open to the public. Beginning this year, all NASA-funded authors of peer-reviewed papers will be required to provide copies of their science journal articles and the accompanying data. The research will be made available on the public portal, for free, within a year of publication.

“At NASA, we are celebrating this opportunity to extend access to our extensive portfolio of scientific and technical publications. Through open access and innovation we invite the global community to join us in exploring Earth, air and space,” NASA deputy administrator Dava Newman said in a press release.

While the portal, called PubSpace, doesn’t have the most gorgeous interface, it’s a step toward meeting a 2013 request from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, seeking increased public access to the results of federally funded research.