The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship

Posted on May 2, 2017 By John Jones Journal articles

Most scientists know that much of the data created in academic research efforts ends up being locked away in silos, difficult to share with others. But what are scientists doing about? In this 2016 paper published in Scientific Data, Wilkinson et al. outline a distinct set of principles created towards reducing the silos of information: the FAIR Principles. The authors state the primary goal of the FAIR Principles is to "put specific emphasis on enhancing the ability of machines to automatically find and use the data, in addition to supporting its reuse by individuals." After describing the principles and giving examples of projects that adhere to them, the authors conclude that the principles have the potential to "guide the implementation of the most basic levels of good Data Management and Stewardship practice, thus helping researchers adhere to the expectations and requirements of their funding agencies."

A multi-service data management platform for scientific oceanographic products

Posted on April 26, 2017 By John Jones Journal articles

The problem? Disparate data sources, from weather and wave forecasts to navigation charts and natural hazard assessments, made oceanography research in Southern Italy more cumbersome. Solution? Create a secure, standardized, and interoperable data platform that can merge all that and other information together into one powerful and easy-to-use platform. Thus the TESSA (Development of Technology for Situational Sea Awareness) program was born. D'Anca et al. discuss the creation and use of TESSA as a geospatial tool that merges real-time and archived data to help researchers in Southern Italy. The authors conclude that TESSA is "a valid prototype easily adopted to provide an efficient dissemination of maritime data and a consolidation of the management of operational oceanographic activities," even in other parts of the world.