Roman will support general astrophysics goals beyond dark energy and exoplanets in two ways. First, data from the Core Community Surveys (CCS), like all Roman data, will have no exclusive access period and will enable archival research investigations. Second, somewhat more than 25% of the 5-year prime mission will be dedicated to peer-reviewed science covering any aspect of astrophysics.

General Astrophysics Surveys (GAS) are anticipated to use any combination of archival data and dedicated Wide Field Instrument (WFI) observations, from purely archival data analysis to new observing programs enabling science that cannot be addressed otherwise.

The 2015 WFIRST Science Definition Team report includes as Appendix D a set of about 40 briefly described general astrophysics science programs contributed by the community, providing a substantial, but not exhaustive, list of general astrophysics investigations enabled by Roman. This table, drawn from the 2015 report, lists the lead author and investigation title for each of these science cases. It also indicates whether the suggested investigation depends on new GAS observations ("GO", a now-deprecated term), and/or on data from each of the three CCS ("GI", also deprecated). The investigations listed there are purely suggestive and do not represent the range of possible astrophysics investigations or actual set of programs, which are still to be determined through a competitive peer review process throughout the prime mission.

The Roman Observatory Time Allocation Committee (ROTAC) placed a high priority in their final report on enabling the community to propose GAS that will address compelling science goals beyond those that can be accomplished by the CCS. The ROTAC recommended 389 days of the prime mission be allocated for GAS. The time is currently planned to be allocated to a maximum of 30 approved WFI GAS programs that will be solicited across a subset of Roman Calls for Proposals (alongside proposals for analysis resources only). Most of the GAS time is anticipated to be allocated in the later cycles, when the observatory performance is more fully understood. The ROTAC advocated that the community organize to generate proposals for relatively large surveys, designing each to address broad science cases, to take better advantage of Roman's capabilities than many different small programs would. The ROTAC also encouraged the community to pursue GAS programs that benefit from CCS data, but may require additional observations.

An example of such a large-scale GAS program is the selected early-definition Galactic Plane Survey (GPS), which will be allocated 30 days of GAS time. IPAC members are active participants in the definition of the GPS.