The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been observing for less than 4 months, but already a storm is brewing over access to its data.
The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope has been observing for less than 4 months, but already a storm is brewing over access to its data. Webb images and spectra all end up in an archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, yet most of them aren’t freely available until 1 year after the data were collected. This gives the researchers who proposed the observations time to analyze them and publish results without being scooped.
But others say instant access to data may clash with pressing efforts to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in astronomy. Scientists at smaller institutions, many of which serve underrepresented groups, may need more time for analysis compared with the well-resourced teams at established research universities.
After often-heated debate, the Webb advisory committee that Illingworth chaired before the telescope’s launch urged that its proprietary period last just 6 months. Any longer, the committee concluded, and most of the data collected during the first year of observing, known as cycle 1, would be unavailable to astronomers trying to plan what to look for in cycle 2, or even some of cycle 3.
But proprietary time still galls many astronomers. On 15 November, STScI will put out the call for cycle 2 proposals, for observations to start in July 2023. Although the ERS data are helping many plan future observations, most cycle 1 data are still locked up and some will remain so until the second half of 2024. NASA is also under pressure from the White House.
Illingworth says underrepresented groups could be helped by making proprietary time optional, with space in the proposal form for researchers to request it and explain their need. Marcia Rieke of the University of Arizona, principal investigator of Webb’s near-infrared camera, favors the opposite: giving everyone proprietary time with the expectation that those who don’t need it will give it up, or at least release their data when they publish.
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