Facilitating the USGS Scientific Data Management Foundation by integrating the process into current scientific workflow systems

Increasing attention is being paid to the importance of proper scientific data management and implementing processes that ensure that products being released are properly documented.  USGS policies have been established to properly document not only publications, but also the related data and software.  This relatively recent expansion of documentation requirements for data and software may present a daunting challenge for many USGS scientists whose major focus is their physical science and who have less expertise in information science.  As a proof of concept, this project has created a software solution that facilitates this process through a user-friendly, but comprehensive, interface embedded in an existing scientific workflow system used in the USGS for species distribution modeling.  The software produced by this proposal has gone through initial testing, and the project team is currently in the process of using the application to document their first USGS data release.  Lessons learned from this initial use case will be used to update and tune the current functionality.  This functionality will ultimately be merged into the next released version of the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling (SAHM).  This project could provide an exemplar that the USGS can point to as it initiates new standards for producing repeatable science.  The exemplar this team has created could also help ensure compliance pertaining to new requirements.

Principal Investigator : Colin Talbert, Drew A Ignizio, Catherine S Jarnevich, Jeffrey T Morisette