Editing Data Policy and Guidelines - Global Water Futures Observatories

Section 1: Proxy Content

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GWFO Data Management

Data management (DM) strategies are issues of crucial importance, as these data represent a considerable investment of time, money, and resources.  The long-term legacy of data from the program can only be assured by its careful deposit in repositories and indexing in a centralized service.

GWFO has adopted a distributed data preservation and access model that leverages existing, trusted repositories which meet GWFO data stewardship criteria and can be searched and accessed from a centralized metadata search portal.  We encourage publication of data with persistent digital object identifiers (DOIs) along with sufficient metadata and detailed descriptions.  To ensure long-term, ongoing public accessibility to large volumes of complex and disparate data and associated information, a new tool, GWFNet has been developed as a user-friendly high-level information hub specialized for relating together different forms of records on water science research.

GWFO employs a professional data management team with staff at each of the major partner insitutions with oversight and direction from experienced faculty representatives at these universities, as well as high-level guidance from the SMC.  The DM team has prepared detailed plans and a sound strategy for DM with the following overall objectives:

1. Ensuring management of data throughout the research lifecycle;
2. Establishing data governance practices and processes;
3. Developing techniques and tools for data stewardship; and,
4. Providing input and assistance on all data-related initiatives of GWFO.

The article, “Ten Best Practices to Strengthen Stewardship and Sharing of Water Science Data in Canada,” published in Hydrological Processes, is based on the GWF and GWFO experience and provides valuable information and materials to the global community.

GWFO Data Policy
Date Approved: 2024-11-25
GWFO is a provider of pan-Canadian, high-quality water research data from academic institutions and
partners that is partly supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s Major Science Initiatives
(MSI) Fund. As such, all data generated through the routine operation of the GWFO facilities (research
sites, laboratories, and deployable systems) that are paid for by GWFO are governed by this policy and
are regarded as GWFO-owned, open data, meaning that the data are machine readable, freely shared,
used, and built on without restrictions (including for commercial purposes) under a Creative Commons
CC_BY 4.0 License.
Routine data collection includes all observations (automated and/or manual, continuous and/or
intermittent) as part of the GWFO supported functioning of the instrumented sites, laboratories, or
deployable systems, including, but not limited to hydro-meteorological conditions, cryospheric
observations, water quality/quantity, ecological/biological parameters, contaminants, or other water-
related variables. These data are fully GWFO-owned. All such data shall be made available free of
charge through web services, internet downloads, special requests, and through other internet and
user-based access tools, and shall be catalogued in the GWFO central data catalogue, GWFNet.
The metadata in central catalogue shall offer centralized and well-organized access to all GWFO-
owned data outputs by providing direct web links to download the data from the actual online database
or other long-term repository system where the data reside, as well as links for instant visualization.
The central catalogue will also track data access requests for reporting to MSI.
GWFO may offer data owned or co-owned by one or more data partners which may be subject to
alternative licensing depending on the established agreement between the partners. For instance, data
may be collected from observation sites on Indigenous lands, and these data may be co-owned and
subject to additional or alternative licensing and/or protocols, such as OCAP and CARE, which may
supersede the CC_BY licensing depending on the agreements made with the partners.
GWFO may collect, store and deliver data owned by others through various collaborations and fee-for-
service arrangements. GWFO encourages these owners to follow this GWFO policy.
All forms of data access (WISKI, FRDR, DataStream, etc.) shall provide a prominent link to the GWFO
online Data Access Request Form for data users to complete and explanatory text urging users to
complete the information and the reason for collecting this information. The information collected will
be used to annually report the number of users of the GWFO data outputs along with the geographic
and sectoral distribution of these users to CFI. Some GWFO hosted data may not be readily accessible
through direct online download (e.g., very large size) and may require a special request to be submitted
as described in the central catalogue.
This policy is implemented by GWFO following best practices described in the GWFO Data Policy
Implementation Plan. The Implementation Plan is updated periodically as required to ensure that
GWFO data management continues to follow best practices.