1. Foundational Concepts and Philosophy

Data Philosophy

• Core Tenancy: Establishing data management as a core tenet of ocean science.
• Tool Prioritization: Focusing on open source and accessible tools first, followed by paid versions.
• Collaboration: Improving existing tools together is more efficient than independently creating new versions of the same thing.
• Funding Awareness: Resources and information on obtaining funding for data management and incorporating these costs into proposals.

Overarching Terminology

Data vs Metadata

Equity and Accessibility

• Prioritize providing training and guidance materials in multiple languages.
  • Google Vids provides a transcript-to-voiceover narration feature for videos.
• Consider modifications to data management protocols to fit vessels that are not heavily resourced (e.g., fishing vessels, small launches with no computing power or network connectivity)

Data Repositories

Ocean science data ends up in a variety of repositories, each with their own ingest process, requirements, and formatting. Here are a few, this list is not comprehensive:

• Rolling Deck to Respository (R2R)
• Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS)
• European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet)
• Pangaea
• Ocean Networks Canada
• NOAA National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI)
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• GenBank
• Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS)

Definitions

Terminology varies around the world and across disciplines. In these resources we use the following definitions.

Operator: Person, team, or entity responsible for maneuvering or coordinating vessels, vehicles, and instrumentation into position. Often responsible for raw data collection in the field, with input from the science mission team. Sometimes the science mission team fulfills this role.

Science (Mission) Team: Directs the scientific mission, plans objectives, coordinates with the operators to achieve scientific goals. Usually responsible for cruise planning, post-cruise data processing, analysis, publication, and dissemination.

Cruise, Expedition, Mission: Interchangeable terms for a unit of work conducted in the field, typically designated by one departure and arrival, but may be split into legs or grouped as a campaign.

Asset: a generic term for any vessel, vehicle, or instrument.

Vessel: the primary physical asset operated by the operator, hosting the science mission team. Ranges from global class research platforms to small launches. In the hierarchy of assets, a vessel is usually the largest asset and hosts smaller vehicles and instruments. Usually there is only one vessel per cruise, expedition, or mission.

Vehicle: an asset deployed from a vessel or shore, equipped with scientific instrumentation. Includes human-occupied vehicles (HOV), remotely operated vehicles (ROV), and autonomous surface/underwater vehicles (ASV/AUV).

Instrument: an object that collects scientific data. Includes sonars, probes, sensors. Instruments are usually mounted on vehicles or vessels, but may be deployed independently.

Data Tool: software, code, or program that aids in the processing, management, or manipulation of data.