The Nebula program is on temporary pause while the NASA Open Science materials are being refreshed

We’ll update this page when we’re back!

About Nebula

The OLS Nebula Program is part of NASA’s Open Science initiative). We aim to increase adoption of open science practices, and broaden participation in research.

Nebula offers six-week-long virtual cohorts, designed for participants at any career stage. The program integrates practical training with individual coaching, supporting participants in applying open science principles, skills, and tools in their work. For more information, you can read our full proposal jointly awarded with our partner organization MetaDocencia.

Open Science 101 Curriculum

Our cohorts cover the Open Science 101 Curriculum Below are the topics covered in each module:

Week 1: Ethos of Open Science

• What is Open Science?
• Why is Open Science important?
• Values of Open Science

Week 2: Open Tools

• Open Licenses
• Metadata and documentation
• Repositories
• Persistent identifiers

Week 3: Open Data

• Introduction to Open Data
• FAIR principles
• Data Management Plans

Week 4: Open Code

• Introduction to Open Code
• Using Open Code: code repositories, README, software citations

Week 5: Open Results

• Reproducibility
• Contribution guidelines and giving recognition
• Open Access publications and preprints

Week 6: Graduation

• Final presentations by participants

Roles

This program relies on the active involvements of our volunteer community, who share a passion for Open Research and bigger communities in Open Science:

• Participants
• Expert speakers and trainers
• Facilitators

Participants

Our participants are researchers, research-supporting staff, and others who want to integrate best practices for open and reproducible research at any career level, from undergraduates to senior scientists.

Our participants will:

• Gain a better understanding of Open Science and its best practices
• Gain insights from experts in the field
• Fill gaps in Open Science knowledge related to their research
• Increase their visibility as Open Scientists
• Become Open Science ambassadors for their communities
• Become contributing members of OLS
• Exchange skills with others and build their profiles
• Highlight and promote their work

Experts

Expert speakers and trainers are invited to lead a training session and provide feedback to participants on their work.

Our experts are motivated Open practitioners. Experts:

• Understand and advocate the value of working openly
• Look for opportunities to gain teaching experience and support or give back to the research community
• Enjoy sharing their resources to facilitate others’ work
• Develop and teach skills collaboratively within the community
• Seek to gain and improve leadership skills through their engagements in this program

Facilitators

Facilitators work closely with the OLS organisers to manage and run cohort calls. They lead efforts in preparing cohort call notes, co-hosting calls and ensuring the sharing of call recordings and resources through OLS channels. This is an invitation-based role. Facilitators are offered an honorarium in recognition of their valuable contributions to the program.

Our facilitators are:

• Participants or experts in a previous cohort
• Keen to learn more about the operations of OLS and take a vital role in facilitating cohort calls
• Committed to contribute time and leadership skills towards building a collaborative experience for the attendees of OLS cohort calls.