This week, the European Global Ocean Observing System (EuroGOOS) and the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) organised a free online training for Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs) in support of the EU4Ocean Coalition and the United Nations Ocean Decade. It focused on marine data for sustainable development. Important data principles were introduced. The training empowered ECOPs with the knowledge, skills and confidence to apply the principles of FAIR, TRUST and CARE marine data management. What are those principles?
The FAIR principles were published in 2016 in the journal Scientific Data in an article titled ‘The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship’. Professionals from academia, funding agencies, industry and scholarly publishers came together to develop the principles to enhance data findability and usage by machines, and reusability by individuals.[1]
FAIR stands for [2]
- Findeable: the data can be found via search engines and catalogues, have machine-readable metadata (information about the data) and a unique persistent identifier;
- Accessible: users of the data know how to access the data;
- Interoperable: data can be combined and exchanged with other data because of standardisation of the data and metadata, and open file formats are used.
- Reusable: documentation and metadata ensure that data can be interpreted and reused.
Data stewardship comes with a responsibility to ensure and maintain the value of the data, and therefore data users need trustworthy digital repositories (systems to store and manage data). These respond actively to changes in technologies, but also the needs of the people working with the data. The TRUST principles come into play to provide a framework that not only benefits data managers but also funders and repository users.[3]
TRUST stands for [3]
- Transparency: repository services and data should be easily discoverable;
- Responsibility: the authenticity and integrity of data, and the reliability and persistence of the service should be ensured;
- User focus: the repository meets community expectations;
- Sustainability: data should be preserved and services sustained;
- Technology: technologies should be in place to support secure, persistent and reliable services.
The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance reflect the crucial role of data in advancing Indigenous innovation and self-determination. They complement other data principles and movements by considering people and purpose. The principles were drafted at the International Data Week and Research Data Alliance Plenary co-hosted event ‘Indigenous Data Sovereignty Principles for the Governance of Indigenous Data Workshop’ in 2018. [5]
CARE stands for [5]
- Collective benefit: data ecosystems are designed and function in ways that enable Indigenous Peoples to derive benefit from the data;
- Authority to control: Indigenous People’s rights and interests in indigenous data are recognised and their authority to control is recognised. Indigenous Peoples and governing bodies determine how Indigenous Peoples, lands, territories, resources, knowledge and geographical indicators are represented and identified within the data;
- Responsibility: those working with Indigenous data have a responsibility to share how those data are used to support Indigenous Peoples’ self-determination and collective benefit. Accountability requires meaningful and openly available evidence of these efforts and the benefits accruing to Indigenous Peoples;
- Ethics: Indigenous Peoples’ rights and wellbeing should be the primary concern at all stages of the data life cycle and across the data ecosystem.
During the training, amongst the many very interesting topics, participants learned about the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) and the European Atlas of the Seas. The Atlas team explained how participants can use the Atlas to explore a wide diversity of marine topics but also create their own maps. Have a look at the Atlas presentation made during the training.
One of the early steps in the data life cycle is data collection. This week’s Map of the Week shows near real-time data provided by EMODnet Physics. This map layer shows the position of underwater gliders in the ocean and seas worldwide. Underwater gliders are oceanographic instruments that automatically collect ocean data and monitor the seas. These gliders follow an up-and-down, sawtooth-like profile through the water. Their sensors measure a range of parameters (temperature, conductivity, currents, chlorophyll fluorescence and more). Click on the gliders in the map to learn more about them!
Wish to know more?
- Learn more about oceanographic instruments by consulting the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) Marine Robotics Centre;
- Discover the project ‘adopt a float’ which brings ocean science into classrooms;
- Watch the video ‘EMODnet: Transforming Ocean Observations into FAIR data and Marine Knowledge’;
- Have a look at EuroGOOS’ page on ocean literacy which includes many resources.
The data in the map is provided by EMODnet Physics.
[2] https://www.kuleuven.be/rdm/en/guidance/fair
[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-0486-7