World Data System Scientific Committee Draft Report of the 13th Committee Meeting

World Data System Scientific Committee Draft Report of the 13th Committee Meeting Goals of the Meeting 21 22 September 2015 ICSU Secretariat, Paris The first phase of the International Council for Science World Data System (ICSU-WDS) was about putting everything in place for the system to work. The new WDS Scientific Committee (WDS-SC) now has the big task of moving ICSU-WDS from the planning into the operational phase making it work in real time. The main focus of the Meeting was thus to go through some of the achievements already made by previous Committees and to ensure that they are considered fit for purpose by the new WDS-SC. The move towards implementation of ICSU-WDS comes, in particular, with questions of how long the certification and reporting processes should take, how they should be performed, and how they can be streamlined such that they are obvious to everybody. A task in the next few years will be to expand WDS membership to ensure that key certified data services are involved not only in WDS but also ICSU programmes, and to do that the WDS-SC must ensure the correct procedures are in place. Membership Recruitment The WDS-SC deliberated on how ICSU-WDS can have greater outreach to domains and countries in which it is not presently well represented. One solution might be to hold Workshops/Meetings with domains/in countries so that the WDS-SC can initiate contact with organizations in those areas. ICSU-WDS is not particularly effective at accessing the United Nations (UN) and its data initiatives. There is a divide between what the Scientific Unions and programmes of ICSU and what the UN programmes are doing. ICSU-WDS needs to somehow address this. From the broader ICSU perspective, WDS will reach out to the World Health Organization and Food and Agricultural Organization and their databases a requirement to be part of those organizations is to share data, it is in their remit, and linking with them is critical in terms of expanding WDS membership. There is a two-pronged strategy for membership recruitment: at the higher level, talking with bodies who are already organizing their own networks such as the UN Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization; and at the more informal, individual level, contacting services that ICSU-WDS knows about. From the point of view of science and of feeding into Future Earth, ICSU-WDS is clearly looking to recruit global services; but from the point of view of mobilizing capacity to improve the infrastructure that serves scientists, national/regional services are of key importance. Nevertheless, national/regional services often contribute to several international networks, and the question is one of involving the network or the individual data services. The WDS-SC set up an ad hoc Subcommittee on New Membership with goals to (1) identify ICSU-WDS priorities for membership, (2) target specific candidates for WDS membership, (3) develop a contact pack 1

explaining why it is advantageous to join ICSU-WDS, and (4) initiate the first round of recruitment. WDS Webinars have thus far been quite successful. Such Webinars attract interest in ICSU-WDS, and are a good way to start the recruitment process in such areas as the Health Sciences by having presentations that show to these communities the relevance of the work ICSU-WDS is already undertaking. This would involve identifying those that should be sent notices about the Webinars to broaden the audience. Review & Accreditation Processes The WDS-SC has been keen for some time to streamline the certification and review procedures, and to make the current documents easier and more user-friendly such that they include the wanted information. It is important that WDS Members advertise what they are doing, the WDS-SC has feedback, and the overall level of trustworthiness in ICSU-WDS is enhanced. The Biennial Reports serve this purpose; they are public documents and not only promote each WDS Member s work but also enable them to share best practices/experiences with the community. However, the review process for the inaugural round of Biennial Reports did not gone as smoothly as hoped; especially, it placed a heavy burden on a small number of SC members. As a result, the WDS-SC suggested to possibly organize the Biennial Reports, and thus the reviews, so that they are spread throughout the year. Furthermore, with Members assessed during the accreditation process, the Biennial Reports can be simplified by removing the sections concerning certification, and focussing on activities. The WDS-SC also recommended that the Biennial Report template be re-examined since WDS Members are not always clear on what information is being asked for and where the questions are not sufficiently transparent which can make the reviews less straightforward. Especially, non-native English speakers must be taken into consideration. The WDS-SC will have to start the Periodic Review of around 40 Members in 2016. The volume of applications requiring assessment in a short time may therefore considerably increase the WDS-SC s workload. A simple solution is to involve Regular and Network Members in the reviews, which has worked well for the past two years on a smaller scale; the expectation being that external experts perform exactly the same job as SC members in reviewing applications. ICSU-WDS has guidance documents to assist in this process, but these may need revision. To address the above issues, an ad hoc Subcommittee on Review and Accreditation Processes was set up by the WDS-SC with a remit to (1) prioritize the Periodic Reviews over the next few years of WDS Regular and Network Members, (2) summarize any feedback from the Biennial Report reviews and pass this back to WDS Members, (3) make sure that the accreditation forms are correct for starting the Periodic Review process, (4) redesign the Biennial Report template, and (5) update the guidance documentation for external reviewers to facilitate its use. ICSU-WDS will adopt the Common Requirements created by the partnership Working Group (WG) on Certification with the Data Seal of Approval (DSA) with some additional questions added and thus all Members will obtain the new certification when they go through reaccreditation. Although ICSU-WDS will keep the 3 5-year duration for the current reaccreditations, it will then move to a 3-year interval once the current cycle has been completed. Data Sharing Principles The new WDS-SC was shown the latest version of the WDS Data Sharing Principles, and was in general agreement with the former one that these high-level Principles are correct. The text now includes an introduction that contains all four WDS Objectives explicitly, and articulates why ICSU-WDS has Data Sharing Principles and the implications to those who subscribe to them. Very deliberate language has been chosen to reflect that the Principles do not conflict with the policies/principles of ICSU-WDS partners/collaborators. 2

Since this is not a policy, it does not have an implementation component. Implementation in this sense means through the WDS certification standard, and hence this must be checked to confirm it accounts for everything expected of WDS Members in the Principles. In parallel, ICSU-WDS must ensure that its current membership can adhere to the new Principles, which are more regulated and precise about the sharing of data. Once the Principles have been approved by the WDS-SC, therefore, they will be sent out to WDS Members to show their framing and to ask if they support them. A practical document will be created that sits behind the Principles; spelling out the details and giving examples and definitions of the terms. Scenarios that meet/fall outside of the Principles may also be included with WDS Members asked to provide case studies of difficult situations they have encountered such that context can be given to assist in everyone s understanding. Links Between WDS and CODATA Mapping the Data Ecology ICSU has two Interdisciplinary Bodies associated with data the World Data System and the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) and this is confusing to people both internal and external to the organization. Part of the confusion is that the two Bodies are not addressing different audiences or problems, they simply have different perspectives and are concentrating on different parts of the global picture: WDS main role is to create a system of trusted data services, everything else serves that goal; CODATA has a wider and in a sense more theoretical remit. Areas of synergy and overlap, as well as their very distinct, niche roles, are clear to the two Bodies; but their relationship must be formalized to make it evident to the wider community why they both exist and how they intersect. It is thus critical for WDS and CODATA to build concrete, practical ways to work together closely and effectively, and to appropriately link with other ICSU initiatives. Both Bodies have an outreach component, education component, and so on, and this is where things start merging. The tools and resources required for educational opportunities within ICSU and the community in general is a natural place for interaction between CODATA and WDS, and they must ensure open access to such tools and resources even if they do not create them. The primary focus of WDS is on the data management upskilling of its membership namely, data experts and through them, reaching out to the scientific community. Moreover, WDS Members have their own education and training activities that should be tracked. CODATA s remit is to a broader science community: the researchers themselves. CODATA and WDS can thus collaborate on the outreach of wider Data Science skills, but must split up leadership on different areas. The two Bodies must ensure that their advocacy is entirely coordinated and does not conflict in any way. CODATA is concentrating on where data are produced, how researchers work with data, and the tools and environment they need to do that work. Once it is about curation, preservation, and dissemination of those data, WDS has a much clearer role. But, preservation must be considered at the conceptual stages of a new research project to make decisions having implications further down the line, and thus the two Bodies work hand-in-hand from the outset of any scientific research to achieve their aims. ICSU has proposed the development of a strategic plan that identifies activities being led by CODATA or by WDS; what is done jointly and what independently. However, such a strategic plan is a long-term goal, and a shorter term one towards the plan s realization is to map out the Data Ecology: an analysis of what exists, what is missing, what messages are being put across, how data operate at different levels, and so on. This analysis will then inform both the strategic plans of each Body and the joint one. The WDS-SC agreed that the Data Ecology analysis was a worthwhile exercise, but that the Research 3

Data Alliance (RDA) should be involved in the analysis and the strategic development afterwards. It is a great opportunity to sketch out how things work, how they might work in an ideal situation, and to indicate which parts are typically/can be sustainably funded by governments, which parts are not currently funded, and which parts need intergovernmental funding. Defining where money is needed that is not readily available remains critical, because if infrastructure is built, it needs money to sustain it. WDS and CODATA will spend some time sketching out the various components that will go into the analysis, and will return to ICSU to ask for funding once the scoping document is considered satisfactory. They will then approach RDA and other partners to ask them to be involved such that the analysis can be expanded further. In this regard, whilst funding might be limited to ICSU, there could be other possibilities since the question of mapping the data landscape has arisen in many different avenues. Other actions for WDS and CODATA are to (1) learn details on which ICSU Members/Unions/Programmes have a data committee all are mandated to do so and to liaise with both Bodies how they operate, and so on; and (2) formalize collaboration modalities between the Bodies by having representatives at each other s governance meetings, as well as having jointly conducting monthly meetings with RDA. The Global Science Forum of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is interested in the outcomes of Cost Recovery part of the Publishing Data WG and it is working with ICSU-WDS to host a Workshop looking at the policy challenges around the funding of data infrastructure. This work might then also feed into the Data Ecology analysis. International Data Week International Data Week (IDW) 2016 is a major venture amongst ICSU-CODATA, ICSU-WDS, and RDA; highlighting hot issues in data management and the importance of dedicating sufficient resources for these. One component of IDW 2016 will be the next SciDataCon: the joint CODATA WDS research conference that invites scientific papers on broad data issues of importance. The first SciDataCon took place in 2014 and attracted a good crowd, and this time ICSU-CODATA and ICSU-WDS want to enlarge the impact of the conference and appeal to a different and far wider audience. A chief concern for the WDS-SC s is to ensure that ICSU-WDS achieves its aims from IDW 2016. The scientific agenda of SciDataCon is vitally important in this regard, and the first priority must be the message that is given out. To reach out to new communities, the science issues underpinned by data services must be identified and be part of the International Forum Day such that SciDataCon can also pick up on these themes. Example are needed that show the use of data: the scientific, practical, quality, and management problems posed. If eminent, provocative speakers talk on the Forum Day about four/five topics with this sort of structure, they can feed into SciDataCon as foci. The consensus of the WDS-SC was the need for a small Forum Committee to be activated immediately to brainstorm about the potential science highlights of IDW in order to (1) maximize the audience, (2) support the planning of SciDataCon and the RDA Plenary, and (3) identify the targets to be invited. This Committee will also have to think about conflicts with other meetings. WDS Administrative Matters Working Groups The three current WDS WGs will continue, but in all cases either their remit needs to be rewritten or negotiations with partners have to be established. There is still some way to go with the aims of the Publishing Data WG. To achieve them, the WG has sought synergies with both related groups dealing with issues surrounding data publication and 4

existing projects and components worldwide. Funding is now vitally important, and the WG is looking towards a number of potential sources. The next stage is to restructure the WG to include other WGs under RDA and to move towards practical outcomes; in particular, a testbed to exemplify how things works in reality. The WG wants to ensure that everything produced is operational for stakeholders. The DSA WDS partnership WG on Certification is completing its 18-month term under RDA. The governances of the two organizations now must decide whether they both wish (and how best) to continue with the results of the WG. The perspective of the WDS-SC is that a small group of people from both sides take the work into the implementation phase. The WDS-SC cannot mandate on the relationship though, and asked that this message be given to DSA. The Knowledge Network (KN) WG was tasked with writing its mandate for the next 2 3 years, including for fund raising. It is moot as to whether such a WG is needed though, because these systems are not at the stage of debating ideas or getting inputs from experts; instead, it is more important to have a team of experts internal and external to realize their implementation. Specifically, the WG needs to continue as guidance/reference/advisory group to build a marketable prototype of the KN that can be utilized to demonstrate the use cases and convince funders to assist with operational implementation. PANGAEA has been spearheading ICSU-WDS effort to build the aggregated Metadata Catalogue (MC), but does not have the resources to maintain it. The idea is to therefore get OpenAIRE involved, because it already has a framework to harvest different data providers and is very flexible. All communications on how to collect information from WDS Members portals have been moved to the Issue Tracker, and sophisticated people are needed to go into the details of the issues. How implementation of the MC is realized once adequate information is obtained will be written into the new mandate of the KN WG. The WDS-SC unanimously approved proposed changes to the current WDS policy on the chairing WDS WGs such that it can now appoint anybody to chair a WG on its behalf. General The WDS-SC voted in two new Vice Chairs of the Committee, as stated in its Terms of Reference. The WDS-SC expressed its appreciation to the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology for not only hosting the WDS International Programme Office (WDS-IPO) but also supplying additional funding to balance its budget. The general balance of WDS-IPO activities was approved in the proposed budget for FY 2016. The WDS Strategic Plan provides reasoning for its Strategic Targets (STs). In contrast, the Implementation Plan is more operational and pragmatic: a roadmap giving exact details on how ICSU-WDS is to act on each ST. A certain level of explanation is nevertheless needed to increase the comprehension of the Implementation Plan; its structure is quite complicated. The WDS-SC thus agreed to add a short executive summary to the Implementation Plan of what is in the Strategic Plan, as well as paragraphs combining the goals and activities of each ST and their justifications to facilitate understanding. Readers will then be directed to the Strategic Plan for more details. An additional resource requirement is to appoint a dedicated communications officer, through either obtaining money for an additional post or internships. The use of internships might be expanded across many of the actions connected with STs, with the WDS-SC offering an opportunity to work with ICSU-WDS during the three-month placement required by some degree programmes. ICSU-WDS will look into generating text about opportunities for training and put them out to start interactions. SC members will regularly contribute to the WDS Blog to increase communication. Blog entries are often well received when written on an interesting subject and contain individual opinions and commentary. 5