This document discusses the implementation of open access to scientific data in the Nordic Center of Excellence SVALI. It outlines the TRI/ICCC data policy which requires data to be freely available and preserved for long-term access. The SVALI data storage plan specifies submitting metadata to the SVALI website and archiving important international data with centers like NSIDC or WGMS. Making data publicly available brings new usefulness while still acknowledging data providers.

1. Implementation of Open Access to
Scientific Data in the Nordic Center
of Excellence SVALI
Tómas Jóhannesson
Icelandic Meteorological Office
NordForsk/NeGI Workshop
Implementation of Open Access to Scientific Data
14 August 2014

2. Overview
• General considerations
• The TRI/ICCC data policy
• The SVALI data storage plan
• WGMS
• GLIMS
• The Randolph Glacier Inventory
• Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW)
• The terminus variations data set of the Iceland
Glaciological Society
• Concluding remarks

3. General considerations
• Types of data
• Data ownership
• Data access
• Grace period
• Acknowledgement
• Metadata
• Future safety and availability

4. Types of data
• Measurements, e.g. lidar maps of glacier
surfaces, time series of temperature at
weather stations, remote sensing of sea-ice
cover
• Derived quantities such as ice-volume
changes, daily, monthly or annual gridded
temperature, changes in sea-ice cover over
years or decades
• Model results

5. Data availability
Data ownership and access
• Private
• Sharing within a group
• Commercially available
• Public domain
Public domain data
• The concept has its origin in software development
• GNU General Public License
• Creative Commons license
• Public access brings a new dimension of usefulness,
the key is ease of use, unforseen and unplanned use
and reciprocity

6. The TRI/ICCC Data Policy

7. The TRI/ICCC Data policy
Data Definition
NCoE ICCC data are those data generated during the duration of the three
individual NCoEs within NCoE ICCC (October 2010 – September 2015) ...
Data Availability and Exchange
In order to maximise the benefit of data gathered under NCoE ICCC, it is
required that NCoE ICCC data are made available fully, freely, openly, and on
the shortest feasible timescale ...
Metadata
Metadata are essential to the discovery, access, and effective use of data. All
NCoE ICCC data must be accompanied by metadata ...
Data Preservation
Recognising that the true value of scientific data is often realised long after
they have been collected, it is essential to ensure long-term preservation and
sustained access to data ...
Data Acknowledgment
To recognise the valuable role of data providers (and scientists who collect or
prepare data) and to facilitate repeatability of experiments in keeping with the
scientific method, users of SVALI data must formally acknowledge data
authors (contributors) and sources. ...

8. The Data Storage Plan
From the SVALI handbook:
... The SVALI NCoE adheres to an open data policy. This means that data
generated by simulation models or gathered in the field measurement
campaigns as a SVALI activity, are freely available to all SVALI participants and
to other scientists as appropriate on the shortest feasible timescale in
accordance with the TRI/ICCC data policy. To facilitate SVALI data storage and
sharing, data providers are requested to submit a data description (or, meta-data)
by filling in Template T.9. and send it to the dissemination team at GEUS
(Signe B. Andersen siba@geus.dk and Signe Hillerup Larsen shl@geus.dk). The
meta-data will be available at the SVALI website http://ncoe-svali.org/data.
Data that have been collected within SVALI, that are of international
importance, and should be stored for longer term than the duration of the
SVALI NCoE will be submitted to appropriate data centers, depending on the
nature of the data. Existing data centers, such as the National Snow & Ice
Data Center (“www.nsidc.org”) or the World Glacier Monitoring Service
(“www.wgms.ch”), will be used, rather than the SVALI NcoE creating own
storage of data. ...

9. Hoffellsjökull, SE-Vatnajökull

10. Tungna-fells-jökull

11. Snæfellsjökull

12. LiDAR
2008

14. Downwasting of Hofsjökull

22. Summary
• Data availability and terms of use are important for
scientific data
• Public domain distribution has become widely
accepted as the appropriate management of
scientific data
• This can be combined with proper acknowledgement
of data providers
• For this to be possible, scientist need to accept that
the value of their data is not diminished by the use
of others

23. Öræfajökukull
2011
Thank you
for your attention!