The archive and dissemination of the observed marine data is at core of the SOCIB mission and timely, free and unrestricted access to all data, associated metadata and products generated under the auspices of ICTS SOCIB will be delivered through systems and processes for data and information management as developed by the Data Centre Facility.
SOCIB Data Access Policy places few formal restrictions on access to data, this emphasis on free and open use of data is also one of the guiding principals of the data policy being developed for the OOI ocean observatory network in the US. However full recognition of the use of data will be strongly encouraged, that is to say the use of SOCIB datasets requires that ICTS SOCIB and any specific research ream involved must be acknowledged by the researcher or other third party making use of the data. Some monitoring datasets may be the result of research experiments designed by SOCIB Partners and implemented through SOCIB infrastructure e.g. dynamic/re-locatable facilities, these datasets are also part of the ICTS SOCIB Data Access Policy and SOCIB will strongly encourage the use of co-authorship in the use of this data by third parties in order that the input of the research experiment designers/SOCIB Partners is explicitly recognised. In addition and in exceptional circumstances SOCIB will allow the research experiment designers/SOCIB Partner to retain exclusive rights to the data for a period of 90 days following collection. Users downloading data from the Data Centre will be explicitly reminded of their ethical obligation to contact the research experiment prior to publication, where appropriate, and offer co-authorship.
The SOCIB Data Centre Facility aims to be at forefront of data provision, in terms of management of the data life cycle (from observation to archive) and in terms of developing technically innovative ways to handle the large quantities of interrelated datasets that will be available through the coastal ocean observing and forecasting system, with new tools for data search and visualization. The Data Centre will host, manage and archive the data (raw and processed, model and observational) from all the SOCIB facilities and provide the standards, protocols and systems to integrate the data and related information into a number of frameworks and tools to allow the end users to access and utilize the data in an open and timely way and through a single integrated framework for data and information management. Additional fast-tracked access to data and products may incur a processing cost Based on the success of this approach other research institutions (e.g. TMOOSIMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), Puertos del Estado), universities and agencies may join the existing infrastructure and offer their marine data through the same data management process. With the eventual aim of providing a blue print for marine data management in Spain, hosting additional datasets and ensuring interoperability with similar services internationally; however, additional resources will be needed to achieve these longer term objectives.
