Is Reducing Proprietary Time On The James Webb Space Telescope A Risk?

By John Oncea, Editor

Currently, data collected by JWST will have a proprietary period of one year before it can be widely shared. But some scientists are pushing for immediate open access to data, claiming it could save lives, inform critical policymaking, and drive more equitable outcomes.

What’s three stories high, cost $10 billion, and uses a 6.5-meter mirror to observe objects 13 billion light years away? Only NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, aka the most powerful space-based telescope the U.S. ever deployed.

The trouble with the JWST, according to the NPR podcast Short Wave, is that it’s the only one and scientists around the world want access to it. “The JWST's managers received more than 1,600 research proposals for what the telescope should look at,” reports Short Wave. “Given the time limitations, the vast majority of them will be rejected.”

And if getting approval* to use JWST is difficult, gaining access to the data mined by those scientists who were fortunate enough can be even more difficult. When an astronomer or team of researchers is granted time with the telescope, they also receive exclusive access to whatever data they collect for one year** before it becomes public.

But the Biden Administration is working to help make most results open access right away by updating U.S. policy guidance to make the results of taxpayer-supported research immediately available to the American public at no cost.

* How do scientists book time on JWST? According to The Planetary Society, “People propose, saying, ‘Here's the science I want to do,’ and it's judged in peer review,” said Neill Reid, the associate director of science at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore. “Would-be JWST users can’t just type up an idea to use the observatory and then email it to STScI. Instead, they must use the Astronomer's Proposal Tool, or APT. This free software bundles up everything from a description of the science questions to be answered to the exact settings for the telescope’s science instruments.”

** “In recent years, NASA has reduced the proprietary time for the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory to 6 months,” notes Science.org. “But it did not do the same for Webb, in part because the academic teams that built its four instruments and the European and Canadian space agencies that partnered in the project had 12 months’ proprietary time written into their agreements.”

Access For Everyone

According to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) release linked above, “President Biden has been committed to delivering policy based on the best available science, and to working to ensure the American people have access to the findings of that research.” The guidance delivered by Dr. Alondra Nelson, the head of OSTP, aims to do that and more.

“This policy will likely yield significant benefits on a number of key priorities for the American people, from environmental justice to cancer breakthroughs, and from game-changing clean energy technologies to protecting civil liberties in an automated world.” All agencies will fully implement updated policies, including ending the optional 12-month embargo, no later than December 31, 2025. In the short term, agencies will work with OSTP to update their public access and data-sharing plans by mid-2023.

“When research is widely available to other researchers and the public, it can save lives, provide policymakers with the tools to make critical decisions, and drive more equitable outcomes across every sector of society,” said Nelson. “The American people fund tens of billions of dollars of cutting-edge research annually. There should be no delay or barrier between the American public and the returns on their investments in research.”

Of course, all of these changes will apply to JWST, and there are strong feelings about whether they should according to Alessandra Aloisi, head of the science mission office at STScI. “It’s very controversial,” driven by the fact that astronomy is a competitive field, said Aloisi. “It's very hard to be successful. And everything that goes against that is seen badly by the community.”

The previously linked Science.org article offers up Mark McCaughrean, an astronomer with the European Space Agency, as someone who wants the 12-month embargo to remain in place because it helps level the field. “Astronomers at small universities often shoulder heavy teaching loads and other responsibilities. If their Webb observations were publicly released straight away, they could be scooped by teams at large, well-resourced research institutions before they had a chance to analyze the data over the summer, for example.”

Marcia Rieke of the University of Arizona, principal investigator of Webb’s near-infrared camera, feels differently. “Giving everyone proprietary time with the expectation that those who don’t need it will give it up, or at least release their data when they publish. Proprietary time ‘encourages people to do a good job analyzing data,’” Rieke said.

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t

Those in favor of open access suggest sharing all of these space telescopes’ findings immediately could accelerate discoveries and maximize the return from these powerful scientific assets. Those opposed worry it could exacerbate existing inequities in who gets to do astronomical research, and perhaps even result in shoddier science as scientists race to be first to find hidden gems in the data.

So, who’s right?

“It’s complicated,” Science.org quotes astronomer Mercedes Lopez-Morales of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, chair of the influential JWST Users Committee as saying. “On the one hand, reducing proprietary time could be ‘in conflict with [NASA’s] other efforts’ to widen the pool of astronomers. Yet instant access to data means the many groups who are unsuccessful at applying for observing time can still get a crack at using the data. “We need to see what the community wants,” Lopez-Morales says, “and we will advocate for that.”

 

Even cutting the year-long period of proprietary time in half would be a start, suggests Michael New, NASA’s deputy associate director for research. “New says the Webb agreements with other space agencies contain clauses allowing proprietary time to be reduced once the telescope is operating and discussions to do so are already taking place. ‘It’s not if we do it, but when. Will everyone be happy? No, but we will listen to all sides.’”