Data Citation and Availability: Striking a Balance Between the Ideal and the Practical
2016; American Geophysical Union; Volume: 14; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1002/2016sw001553
ISSN1542-7390
Autores Tópico(s)Insurance, Mortality, Demography, Risk Management
ResumoSpace WeatherVolume 14, Issue 11 p. 919-920 EditorialFree Access Data Citation and Availability: Striking a Balance Between the Ideal and the Practical Mike Hapgood, Corresponding Author Mike Hapgood mike.hapgood@stfc.ac.uk Search for more papers by this authorDelores J. Knipp, Delores J. KnippSearch for more papers by this author Mike Hapgood, Corresponding Author Mike Hapgood mike.hapgood@stfc.ac.uk Search for more papers by this authorDelores J. Knipp, Delores J. KnippSearch for more papers by this author First published: 21 October 2016 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016SW001553Citations: 11AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Abstract This editorial explores some of the challenges that arise when the space weather community seeks to implement AGU data policy. It shows that many important space weather data sets are hard to cite to modern standards and encourages community discussion on how best to strike a balance between the ideals of that data policy and its practical implementation. Over the past 20 years, AGU has established publication policies that require authors, wherever possible, to make their data available to the scientific community, both data from instruments and data from models. These policies advance science by enabling readers to review all the data behind a paper [Hanson and van der Hilst, 2014]. Data availability encourages open discussion about data interpretation [Oreskes and Conway, 2010]. The space weather community clearly benefits from such policies. Our community engages with decision makers around the world, and we need to present them with first-class science based on robust interpretation of data. However, implementation of these publication policies presents some challenges. Many space weather manuscripts make critical use of data sets that are hard to cite to modern standards, e.g., historical records, commercially sensitive data, and information from legacy data systems. Further, authors from smaller institutions may not be able to afford secure, online data storage. As a result, authors and editors devote considerable effort to match data set availability with AGU data policy (see http://publications.agu.org/author-resource-center/publication-policies/data-policy/). This editorial aims to raise awareness of the issue and stimulate discussion on how best to strike a balance between the ideal and the practical implementation of the policy. The background to this is that data citation capabilities (e.g., as advocated by Earth Science Information Partners [2014] and FORCE11 [2014] and encouraged by AGU data policy) have advanced in recent years through investments in electronic infrastructures that improve data set access across the global research community [e.g., Belehaki et al., 2016]. These infrastructures use common methods to describe the scientific content of data sets (e.g., using standards from the Open Geospatial Consortium). Such standards make it possible to harvest and search data descriptions (metadata). Thus, data sets are "discoverable" by a wider community of researchers: providing them with the terms of reference for data use, the means to access data, and pointers to data documentation and description. This information greatly facilitates data citation, especially if combined with the use of persistent identifiers, such as digital object identifiers (DOIs), to ensure consistent long-term access to the data and their documentation. When using data held in such systems, it is straightforward to address the AGU policy on data citation. So this seems like a good idea! Why are ideals and practice clashing? Growth of space weather at small institutions and in developing countries: The space weather community and its databases are flourishing outside of large research institutions. Many small ground-based observatories at polar and equatorial latitudes now contribute to understanding the sources of internally and externally triggered, anomalous behavior of satellite precision navigation signals and timing. Providing persistent and secure online data access can be a significant challenge for small observatories and institutions. Long-term, self-describing databases: Our community has many data sets that are not in long-term access systems—and not likely to be there for a long time, if ever. Their host organizations have limited access to the funding needed to integrate these data sets into modern electronic infrastructures. Experience from projects such as near-Earth SPAce data infrastructure for e-Science (ESPAS) [Belehaki et al., 2016] shows that this integration is a significant task, for both data from instruments and data from models. It requires that a scientist with deep knowledge of the data sets learns to use the data description methods mandated by the infrastructure and then applies them to create an accurate set of metadata. The importance of this scientist role cannot be underestimated—space weather data sets are highly diverse both in terms of techniques and of how they sample the environment. The preparation of metadata requires a deep scientific understanding of the data, and a willingness to apply that understanding to modern methods of data description. In addition, there needs to be a formal interface through which infrastructure service providers can harvest the metadata; this requires software support to generate new metadata as data records are added to the local data catalogue and to ensure that the harvesting interface is properly configured with respect to the host's local security requirements. Thus, the bottom line here, unsurprisingly, is money. The hosts of many existing data sets face intense competition for funding, not least from competing claims seeking money for new instruments and to exploit new data sets. Thus, progress in modernizing access to data depends strongly on how different funding agencies and different countries strike a balance between these competing claims. Another potential constraint on citation is the use of data from the operators of systems at risk from space weather: both diagnostic data (e.g., the strength of geomagnetically induced currents in power grids) and impact data (e.g., the times and durations of satellite anomalies). Such data are essential for many space weather studies. But the systems at risk, and hence these data, are usually the property of a commercial operator. Thus, there is a need to negotiate access to the data and agree terms that benefit both the operator and the scientist, often on an ad hoc basis specific to each data set. So it is vital to recognize that many sources of space weather data will progress slowly toward current ideals of data citation and availability, and thus, that implementation of AGU data policy must balance ideals against the practical realities faced by authors and data set hosts around the world. There is need for explicit recognition and mitigation of some of the limiting factors for data availability and citation: While the access to legacy, historical, or commercially sensitive data sets will ideally be a web link, in some cases it will just be a contact address. Scientists seeking access to commercially sensitive data must be prepared to negotiate and to agree to access terms that respect legitimate commercial concerns (e.g., the risk that release of data about adverse impacts leads to a loss of competitiveness). A cultural shift is needed in which admission of adverse commercial impacts of space weather is seen as a positive step, giving industry the confidence to share valuable space weather data with the scientific community. It is important to provide politically and financially effective support to data set hosts who are seeking to modernize access to their data and implement capability to issue persistent identifiers for data sets. Comments from the community are welcome on this subject. Biographies Mike Hapgood is a Professor and Head of Space Weather at STFC RAL Space, based at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxford, UK. Email: mike.hapgood@stfc.ac.uk. Delores J. Knipp is Editor in Chief of Space Weather and Space Weather Quarterly. She is a Research Professor at University of Colorado Boulder and holds an appointment as Senior Research Associate with the High Altitude Observatory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. References Belehaki, A., S. James, M. Hapgood, S. Ventouras, I. Galkin, A. Lembesis, I. Tsagouri, A. Charisi, L. Spogli, J. Berdermann, and I. Häggström (2016), The ESPAS e-infrastructure: Access to data from near-Earth space, Adv. Space Res. 58, 1177– 1200, doi:10.1016/j.asr.2016.06.014. Earth Science Information Partners (2014), Data citation guidelines for data providers and archives. [Available at http://commons.esipfed.org/node/308 (accessed 6 October 2016).] FORCE11 (2014), Data Citation Synthesis Group: Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles, edited by M. Martone, San Diego, Calif. [Available at https://www.force11.org/group/joint-declaration-data-citation-principles-final (accessed 19 October 2016).] Hanson, B., and R. van der Hilst (2014), AGU's data policy: History and context, Eos Trans. AGU, 95(37), 337, doi:10.1002/2014EO370008. Oreskes, N., and E. M. Conway (2010), Merchants of Doubt, Bloomsbury Press, New York. Citing Literature Volume14, Issue11November 2016Pages 919-920 This article also appears in:Vol. 13, Issue 4 ReferencesRelatedInformation
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