Dataone and USGS: Making Open Data a Reality
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Volume 4 Issue 3 ©2016 DataONE 1312 Basehart SE University of New Mexico Albuquerque NM 87106 DataONE and USGS: non-USGS entity, including scientific Making Open Data a Reality journals, professional society volumes, cooperating agency series, and university or commercial publishers. “Exceptions are permitted only if the USGS agrees that a demonstrated circumstance restricts the data from public release, for example in rare cases where access must be restricted because of security, privacy, confidentiality, or other constraints. “The plan responds to a February 2013 Office of Science and Technology Policy memorandum that directed federal agencies with annual research and development budgets above $100 million to increase public access to peer-reviewed scientific publications and digital data resulting from federally funded research. On January 8, OSTP approved the USGS plan. “Specifically, this plan requires that an Figure 1: USGS Science Data Catalog electronic copy of either the accepted The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), its current on-line gateways to provide free manuscript or the final publication of a major government contributor to the public access to scholarly research and record is available through the USGS DataONE project, is actively engaged in the supporting data produced in full or in part Publications Warehouse. Digital data will open science data movement. The USGS with USGS funding, no matter how it is be available in machine readable form believes on principle that science data should published. from the USGS Science Data Catalog. be released and available, as evidenced by a The plan will require the inclusion of data history of making water, hazard, and other “The USGS plan ’Public Access to Results management plans in all new research data available in a timely manner since its of Federally Funded Research at the U.S. proposals and grants. inception. The USGS is striving now to ensure Geological Survey: Scholarly Publications that all of its science data that supports and Digital Data,’ stipulates that, beginning “Much of the plan refers to requirements scholarly publications is available in the October 1, the USGS will require that or activities that already exist or are being public forum as the publication is released. any research it funds be released from implemented. The mandate to publish data The following press release, “USGS Increases the publisher and available free to the and findings from USGS science activities Public Access to Scientific Research,” public no later than 12 months after initial dates to the Bureau’s creation by the published February 8, 2016, demonstrates publication. The USGS will also require signing of the Sundry Civil Bill on March the USGS commitment to open data, and that data used to support the findings 3, 1879, establishing the USGS. This bill its leadership’s determination to make be available free to the public when the also defined the requirement to report the government open science data a reality: associated study is published. results of investigations by the USGS to the public. “The U.S. Geological Survey is “The plan applies to research papers and implementing new measures that will data authored or co-authored by USGS, “The results of USGS research, generally improve public access to USGS-funded contract employees, award or grant released in the form of publications, science as detailed in its new public access recipients, partners and other entities. maps, data, and models, are used by plan. The plan enables the USGS to expand It includes materials published by any cont’d page 2 ››› Spring 2016 CoverSTORY cont’d sources are provided.”1 The USGS has long contributed thousands policymakers at all levels of government of metadata records to DataONE’s open and by the private sector to support To begin strategically developing a science platform. Additionally, there are appropriate decisions about how to roadmap to ensure the USGS meets the many examples of DataONE influence respond to natural hazards, manage requirements identified in the plan, the USGS in USGS’s approaches to open data. For natural resources, and to spur innovation recently held a meeting from March 1 to 3, example, DataONE’s leadership is critical in and economic growth. 2016, one of the first of its kind, that brought highlighting best practices for data through together USGS scientists leading policy educational modules, incorporating usability “This plan builds on existing USGS implementation, application development, analysis concepts in software design, and policy, which requires public access be and process improvement for USGS science establishing a working group model that provided for any scholarly publications and data publishing and/or scholarly publications. brings together diverse thinking in an associated data that arise from research The meeting was a landmark for USGS in organization to solve complex problems. conducted directly by USGS or by others that it provided the necessary energy and USGS has adopted these approaches. One using USGS funding, is published by the commitment required at all levels of the specific example in the USGS that models the USGS or externally by USGS scientists or organization to make open science data DataONE approach to community networks of USGS funded scientists. This existing policy a success; this success must begin with people is the Community for Data Integration requires that data must be made available USGS scientists understanding how to (CDI), an open community that employs at the time of publication to support properly release data that support scholarly working groups to further data and technical scholarly conclusions. conclusions. One significant result of the advances in the USGS. meeting was the initiation of three teams that The USGS is committed to the open data “USGS already has the portals it needs to will focus respectively on connectivity between concept as it sees it as fundamental to the implement public access. USGS scholarly systems, communication and training, and advancement of science. Making science publications and associated data are planning for the formalization/establishment data publicly accessible allows for more discoverable online. Currently, citations of designated repository solutions in the efficient and effective understanding of the for the more than 50,000 USGS series USGS. From the momentum of this meeting, Earth’s resources and processes. USGS is publications are available, and 10,000 of the USGS expects to meet the requirements partnering with DataONE to continue making these are also available free to the public of its public access plan by October 1, 2016, science data available, understandable, as downloadable digital files. In addition, as stipulated by the White House Office of and, ultimately, re-usable in new science more than 41,000 scholarly publications Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). endeavors. n authored by the USGS but published USGS and DataONE have been working — Viv Hutchison externally are cataloged in the Publications together since the inception of DataONE Mike Frame Warehouse, and links to original published to make science data open and available. USGS (Guest Editorial) UpcomingEVENTS Members of the DataONE Team will be at the following events. Full information on training activities can be found at bit.ly/D1Training and our calendar is available at bit.ly/D1Events. Jul. 17-18 DataONE Users Group Meeting Durham, NC https://www.dataone.org/dataone-users-group Next DataONE Webinar: Jul. 18-22 Tuesday April 12th Federation of Earth Science Information Partners Durham, NC http://commons.esipfed.org/2016SummerMeeting DataONE: Current Aug. 7-12 Ecological Society of America Ft Lauderdale, FL services, new tools and http://esa.org/ftlauderdale/ future developments Sep. 11-16 Join us at 12 noon Eastern Time. RDA Denver, CO https://rd-alliance.org/plenary-meetings/next-plenary Free to attend, register now at: https://www.dataone.org/webinars 2 Spring 2016 MemberNodeDESCRIPTION Each Member Node within the DataONE federation completes a description document summarizing the content, technical characteristics and policies of their resources. These documents can be found on the DataONE.org site at bit.ly/D1CMNs. In each newsletter issue we will highlight one of our current Member Nodes. Minnesota Population Center (MPC) https://www.pop.umn.edu/ The Minnesota Population Center (MPC) is an interdisciplinary cooperative for demographic research at the University of Minnesota. In addition to the 100 faculty affiliates spread over 26 departments and nine colleges at the University, MPC also serves a broader audience of some 70,000 demographic researchers worldwide. MPC disseminates integrated census and survey data from the U.S. and around the world. These resources describe the populations of more than 70 countries and are designed to be interoperable for spatiotemporal comparisons. MPC currently disseminates census microdata--data describing individuals and households - from 79 countries for the period 1960 to the present; for nine countries, census microdata from the nineteenth century are available. It disseminates integrated versions of four high-value demographic and health surveys from the United States. It also disseminates small-area summary data from the United States for places such as tracts and counties, and boundary files describing these places within the U.S. for the period 1790 to present. MPC also disseminates additional small-area summary data as well as environmental