Best practice for Data Management. Version 1.2.

Abstract

This document is intended as a general guidance for creating and maintaining data collections in ICES – although a number of the general principles can be applied anywhere. It will particularly be a useful resource for expert groups that seek to establish new data collections and systems within ICES, and aims to act as a guide for considerations and work that should be worked out by the contributors ahead of creating formal data calls or building systems to host the data. The document has been initiated in a collaboration between ICES Data Centre and the Data and Information Group (DIG) to ensure that data are managed, structured, and developed in a robust way that will allow best possible use of the data. The focus of the document is for data contributors, possibly already in an ICES working group, seeking to prepare and establish data collections, or to contribute data to existing systems. Data contributors may or may not be aware of how ICES data submissions work, so some sections of the document cover who to speak to, and how to work with the existing system to ensure the information is available for new members of the ICES community. The document is structured along the general stages that data needs to pass through from collection to use in formal advice, with a focus on what data submitters/providers needs to consider. This is followed on by the overarching principles of data sharing (either openly or more constrained), and putting the data into the context of how it is managed once it arrives in ICES. Next to that, the document outlines routes of communication – which groups and bodies within ICES would be first contact points for requests for establishing new data collections. Last, but not least, feedback and dialogue is essential to shape the guidance in this handbook, and both DIG and the ICES Data Centre want to ensure we can capture lessons learned and experiences from different exercises in working groups for the benefit of the ICES community on a continuous basis. Thus, there is a strong encouragement of users of the document to provide feedback or ask questions to either the Data and Information Group or the ICES Data Centre.