Schmidt DSE is part of the “open science” movement that seeks to make scientific research more accessible, transparent, and collaborative. Accessibility is too-often undervalued and is critical to fostering open science that works for and includes everyone. As proponents of open science we create and support open software, tools, data, and knowledge for data management and analysis. When possible we pursue work that allows for open licensing. Notably, accessibility is one of the four FAIR principles (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reuse of digital assets) that underlie open science work. 

Transparency is critical in our processes and products so that others can reproduce our work. Moreover, transparency helps ensure that those involved in our projects can better understand and interrogate our decision making. While it may not be possible or practical to document each decision that has been made in our work, we are committed to communicating all information possible that can help shed light on our methods.

In many cases data should be open and freely accessible to everyone, but in others we may protect privacy to avoid causing harm. In the environmental and data science fields harm occurs when cultural data is misrepresented or inappropriately shared without consent from Indigenous groups. Particularly when collaborating with Indigenous groups, we may not make our work accessible to the public; rather it may be fully owned and maintained by the Indigenous group(s) themselves. We abide by appropriate laws and rules when working with data including the CARE principles for Indigenous data governance (collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility, and ethics). More broadly, we also avoid exposing sensitive information on locations of endangered species and other geographic data, or sharing personal data without consent.