D
DATA
Michael Diepenbroek
MARUM-Center for Marine Environmental Sciences,
University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Data are an integral part of geo-scientific work. Full and
open access to data is a good scientific practice. It allows
for the verification of research findings and is a prerequisite
for large-scale and complex research approaches. The management of data covers the entire life cycle of research data
from field or real-time data acquisition to long-term archiving and publication as well as analysis and reuse of these
data. Reliable usage of data implies that accuracy, consistency, and authenticity of data are maintained and assured
during ingest, archiving, and dissemination (data integrity).
The Open Archival Information System (OAIS) provides a
corresponding reference model.
Production and preparation of data includes control and
assessment of data quality (QA/QC), documentation of
lineage and process steps, as well as harmonization of data
and metadata according to international standards,
whereby the heterogeneity of data types and used methods
imposes a particular challenge. To ensure the consistency
of data and metadata, most of the different science fields
maintain specific metadata standards. Consistency is
supported by development and usage of common ontologies and vocabularies.
Within data centers, ingest and archiving of data are
mostly based on well-defined procedures and supported
through corresponding software frameworks and editorial
systems operated by professional data managers. The technical development allows storage of data at nearly any scale
and complexity. Relational Database Management Systems
(RDBMS) are mostly used as storage back ends. Other
technologies like the Resource Description Framework
(RDF) are available for contextual data such as ontologies.
Increasingly important is the publication of archived
data. The publication process involves persistent identification of data (e.g., through Digital Object Identifier –
DOI), registration (e.g., using DataCite), license
protection, and cataloguing. In this way, data are citable,
can be cross-referenced with literature, and are thus part
of the scholarly publishing system.
For long-term archiving and publication, a multitude of
good quality data centers covering the whole range of
earth and environmental sciences are available. Prominent
are the data holdings of space agencies (e.g., NASA,
ESA), the World Meteorological Organization Information System (WIS), data centers linked to the genome
community (EMBL-EBI, GenBank), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE), and
multidisciplinary data centers like PANGAEA
(Diepenbroek et al., 2002). A long-standing
nongovernmental organization comprising many of these
facilities is the World Data System (WDS) of the International Council for Science (ICSU). The WDS is certifying
and monitoring their members on the base of international
standards and policies thus ensuring high quality of supplied data and services.
Data centers are part of the globally evolving
information infrastructures. Efficient usage of data from
a network of providers requires a high level of data
consistency as well as interoperable and generally
available added value services for data integration and
analysis. Technically, a multitude of content and interoperability standards, as well as warehouse, cloud, and other
systems, are available for this purpose. Integration of
multidisciplinary data raises particular new research
opportunities.
J. Harff et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6238-1,
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016
DATA
Michael Diepenbroek
MARUM-Center for Marine Environmental Sciences,
University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Data are an integral part of geo-scientific work. Full and
open access to data is a good scientific practice. It allows
for the verification of research findings and is a prerequisite
for large-scale and complex research approaches. The management of data covers the entire life cycle of research data
from field or real-time data acquisition to long-term archiving and publication as well as analysis and reuse of these
data. Reliable usage of data implies that accuracy, consistency, and authenticity of data are maintained and assured
during ingest, archiving, and dissemination (data integrity).
The Open Archival Information System (OAIS) provides a
corresponding reference model.
Production and preparation of data includes control and
assessment of data quality (QA/QC), documentation of
lineage and process steps, as well as harmonization of data
and metadata according to international standards,
whereby the heterogeneity of data types and used methods
imposes a particular challenge. To ensure the consistency
of data and metadata, most of the different science fields
maintain specific metadata standards. Consistency is
supported by development and usage of common ontologies and vocabularies.
Within data centers, ingest and archiving of data are
mostly based on well-defined procedures and supported
through corresponding software frameworks and editorial
systems operated by professional data managers. The technical development allows storage of data at nearly any scale
and complexity. Relational Database Management Systems
(RDBMS) are mostly used as storage back ends. Other
technologies like the Resource Description Framework
(RDF) are available for contextual data such as ontologies.
Increasingly important is the publication of archived
data. The publication process involves persistent identification of data (e.g., through Digital Object Identifier –
DOI), registration (e.g., using DataCite), license
protection, and cataloguing. In this way, data are citable,
can be cross-referenced with literature, and are thus part
of the scholarly publishing system.
For long-term archiving and publication, a multitude of
good quality data centers covering the whole range of
earth and environmental sciences are available. Prominent
are the data holdings of space agencies (e.g., NASA,
ESA), the World Meteorological Organization Information System (WIS), data centers linked to the genome
community (EMBL-EBI, GenBank), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE), and
multidisciplinary data centers like PANGAEA
(Diepenbroek et al., 2002). A long-standing
nongovernmental organization comprising many of these
facilities is the World Data System (WDS) of the International Council for Science (ICSU). The WDS is certifying
and monitoring their members on the base of international
standards and policies thus ensuring high quality of supplied data and services.
Data centers are part of the globally evolving
information infrastructures. Efficient usage of data from
a network of providers requires a high level of data
consistency as well as interoperable and generally
available added value services for data integration and
analysis. Technically, a multitude of content and interoperability standards, as well as warehouse, cloud, and other
systems, are available for this purpose. Integration of
multidisciplinary data raises particular new research
opportunities.
J. Harff et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6238-1,
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016