[Esip-preserve] Stewardship Best Practices: availability of source code

[Cook, Robert B.]

I wanted to let you know that in practice the ORNL DAAC has been archiving and distributing source code for terrestrial biosphere models for several years.  The rationale for this practice can be found in the following Eos  article from 2005:
http://daac.ornl.gov/MODELS/EOS_Model_Archiving_Thornton.pdf

The ORNL DAAC's archive of model source code can be found on our Web site:
http://daac.ornl.gov/models.shtml

Another approach for keeping track of processing steps is scientific workflow, such as Taverna, VisTrails, and Kepler (Science Pipes).

Best wishes,
Bob

On Oct 6, 2010, at 9:01 AM, Lynnes, Christopher S. (GSFC-6102) wrote:

> On Oct 6, 2010, at 7:25 AM, Curt Tilmes wrote:
> 
>> Looking over this a bit:
>> 
>> http://wiki.esipfed.org/index.php/Interagency_Data_Stewardship/Principles
>> 
>> Here are some, perhaps controversial, proposals for addition:
>> 
>> Data Creators:
>> 
>> will release all software used in the processing of data used in
>> scientific research. Even if the rights to use that software are
>> restricted it should at least be available for inspection.
> 
> You mean the source code here, right?
> 
> While I applaud the intent, I can say (from personal experience) that navigating the legal / procedural labyrinth for any source code release is so time-consuming that this is currently impractical in many cases.  
> 
> To really make this workable, it would be helpful to get some kind of agency-level exemption to some of the standard release requirements for science processing code. A process similar to the NASA Document Availability Authorization would be more workable.
> 
> I wonder, is this as much an issue in the other agencies, like NOAA, USGS and EPA?
> --
> Dr. Christopher Lynnes    NASA/GSFC, Code 610.2, Greenbelt, MD 20771
> Phone: 301-614-5185
> 
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