MGDS: A Community-Based Trusted Repository for Marine Geology-Geophysics Data

Abstract:

The Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS) is a trusted data repository that provides free public access to a curated collection of marine geophysical data products and complementary data related to understanding the formation and evolution of the seafloor and sub-seafloor. Developed and operated by domain scientists and technical specialists with deep knowledge about the generation, analysis and interpretation of marine geoscience data, MDGS makes available a digital library of data files described by a rich curated metadata catalog. MGDS provides tools and web services for the discovery and download of data collected throughout the global oceans produced by primarily National Science Foundation (NSF) supported research, and is the recommended data repository for NSF-funded Marine Geology and Geophysics projects. MGDS also hosts several coherent data collections including the Academic Seismic Data collection.

Adhering to FAIR data principles, the development of the MGDS data repository, tools, and services is driven by the needs of the science user community with a focus on (1) enabling data discovery and access, (2) curating coherent disciplinary data collections that aid global syntheses, (3) ensuring the long-term preservation and stewardship of research data products, and (4) facilitating compliance obligations for data management and sharing. Data collections hosted by MGDS promote discoverability, integration and synthesis by consolidating similar content richly documented with discipline-relevant metadata. They also enable discovery within legacy data sets which are recognized by the community as important resources for modern research endeavors.

By leveraging emerging cyberinfrastructure developments, and its rich curated metadata catalog, MGDS is able to respond to evolving standards to ensure that its valuable data collections are broadly accessible and may be readily integrated with other data types. Ongoing work ensures that data curated by MGDS may be discovered through DataOne, DataCite, and Google Data Set Search. Continued efforts to broaden data discoverability and access will help to transform the role and value of disciplinary repositories beyond bringing the data to science, and are critical to realizing a future where repositories bring science to the data.