In response, a thread on the many interconnected themes about data accessibility, data inclusivity and proprietary data (exclusivity) that makes this a complex issue. Let's ask the question: who owns data from publicly funded missions or projects? 1/n https://twitter.com/vinita_gowda/status/1324626892389933056

Do the public - whose taxes fund the science - have a right to access the data? Should this data access be opened to ALL science data from ANY publicly funded research (and not just missions or big projects)? Public means anyone, or only national scientific community? 2/n

Typically this is what most space faring nations and @NASA and @esascience do. There is a declared proprietary period at the early phase of a mission when only the principal investigator and collaborating teams have access. After this phase, mission data is made public. 3/n

Public means everyone. I and my students working in India have access to data from ongoing and past @NASA @esa and @JAXA_en space science missions. This is great for us because we can do important science even when our country does not have the necessary space instruments. 4/n

This is also great for them because this inclusion of the global community increases the science output and paper per $ from these missions - essentially they activate a larger human resource pool than they have and everyone benefits! 5/n

Now @isro science mission data have been historically somewhat different. Most early mission data were not made public (not even to other astronomers working around the country). Result: not very high science returns. Most planetary science missions like Chandrayaan...6/n

...and Mangalyaan mission instruments were developed by ISRO centers with little clarity and data access for scientists in non-ISRO institutions. Only now this situation is slowly changing. Data from recent ongoing missions ( #Astrosat and #Chandrayaan2) are being released. 7/n

But many complain that 1) the data is released long after the observations are made reducing their science value and 2) relevant data reduction software and analysis tools are not easily available which makes it difficult for "outsiders" to analyze the data. 8/n

Now my personal opinion is that science data from missions and large publicly funded projects must be made available to the world for analysis. Somebody, somewhere may come up with a new result that was not anticipated by the PI team and this is desirable. 9/n

An initial proprietary period for the PI team is fine, but this should be short. Relevant data reduction software and analysis tools must also be made available. Ideally a national platform for data dissemination from national science projects should be developed. 10/n

Eventually, even data from laboratory experiments, large-scale computer simulations and common instrument facilities must be hosted publicly. This allows independent assessment, transparency and training in data analysis. 11/n

Open data policies, data accessibility and inclusivity increases accountability in science and empowers a larger base of scientists and students from less privileged circumstances to benefit from publicly funded research. This is good for science and humanity. 12/n