# Project Title
Expanding the Space Biology Community: NASA Open Science Data Repository's Analysis Working Groups - Survey Report

## Description
This report is an output of the project “A Philosophy of Open Science for Diverse Research Environments” (PHIL_OS) led by Sabina Leonelli, and the case study focused on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Open Science Data Repository (OSDR) led by Paola Castaño. The case study examines the data processing and sharing practices enabled by OSDR and the role of the Analysis Working Groups (AWGs) bringing together users of the data. The overall goal in this study is to shed light on how open science practices are transforming space biology, and the relationship between the repository’s goals of maximizing discovery and democratizing access. 

This report results from a survey conducted between 2023 and 2024 that aimed to characterize the AWG members in terms of their expertise, scientific interests, demographic characteristics, assessments of the repository, and experiences participating in the groups. The survey included 30 questions and 70 respondents completed it.´

## Suggested Citation
Please cite the report as follows:

Castaño, Paola. 2025. Expanding the Space Biology Community: NASA Open Science Data Repository’s Analysis Working Groups - Survey Report. Studies of Open Science, Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14857151

The Survey Report is supplemented by one dataset Please cite it as follows: 
Castaño, Paola. 2025. Expanding the Space Biology Community: NASA Open Science Data Repository’s Analysis Working Groups - Dataset. Studies of Open Science, Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14856826

## Acknowledgements 
This work is part of the project “A Philosophy of Open Science in Diverse Research Environments” (PHIL_OS [www.opensciencestudies.eu]) funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement 101001145). 

## Methods
The survey was conducted on Qualtrics, an online survey tool. It consisted of 30 questions in five formats: multiple choice, rating, ranking, close-ended, and open-ended questions. It was available for participation from October 16, 2023 to April 12, 2024. 70 respondents completed the survey. They all completed an informed consent section that presented the aims and background of the survey in the PHIL_OS project, emphasizing the independent nature of the study and its funding. 

Quantitative analysis or multiple choice and ranking questions was conducted using Qualtrics, and all open-ended questions were manually coded by the author for qualitative analysis combining inductive and deductive approaches. Inductively, by tracking and grouping emerging themes, and deductively using the eleven Key Scientific Questions identified in the 2023 NASEM Decadal Survey for Biological and Physical Sciences in Space (NASEM 2023) as the scaffold to group responses about the topics in fundamental biology and space biology that interest respondents. For presentation purposes in open-ended questions the report includes minor bracketed edits to facilitate readability.

The analysis presented in the report is descriptive and features all data collected for each question. There is no aim to establish causal relationships between the variables. 

The dataset that underpins this report consists of two parts. Part 1 covers questions A and B pertaining to informed consent, and questions that characterize the respondents (Questions 1-21, and 24-27). Part 2 features questions that involve respondents’ assessments, evaluations and/or feedback about OSDR (Questions 22-23 and 28-30). Responses are presented in a different order between the two parts to avoid potential identifiability of the respondents in relation to the views they express. 

## License

Documentation and data files are freely accessible under the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0 licence.

## Included and Related Files

PHILOS_NASA-AWG-Survey_Report
PHILOS_NASA-AWG-Survey_Dataset