Government researchers are often asked about the amount of freedom they have to pursue their own research. The answer can vary from one agency to another, and within an agency, from one division or person to another. Rather than providing a definitive answer to this question, the author will offer some helpful suggestions for maximizing research freedom based on her twenty five years of experience at NIST, including more than fourteen years managing the development of graphs and visualizations for the NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions Project.