The purpose of this Dear Colleague Letter is to describe—and encourage—effective practices for managing research data1 including the use of persistent identifiers for data and machine-readable data management plans.
Open science principles are increasingly being adopted by industry, government, and academia. Open science gives rise to public benefits by offering broader access to publication, data, and other research materials; broader access enables broader circulation of scientific knowledge, greater return on investments in research data, and more opportunities for replicating and building upon scientific findings.
NSF’s open science policy is articulated in the Foundation’s Public Access Plan (NSF 15-052) and formally implemented in the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide and in the Award Terms and Conditions that accompany each award that NSF makes. Implications of this policy are further clarified in an actively-maintained set of Frequently Asked Questions (NSF 18-041).