5 - External review of ICES data guidelines

[sjurl]

Contact ICES expert groups and expert organisations outside ICES for contributions to review of ICES Data Guidelines, using and established template and issue log

[cfpo]

Review by expert groups complete. Now the review suggestions need to be implemented and the guideline documentation needs to be updated. This is ongoing

[sjurl]

Missing reviews for XBT and seasoar, the rest of the guidelines have been reviewed but are not updated yet.

Planned to be updated by May 2022 DIG meeting.

[sjurl]

Plan for meeting in march to progress this work.

[sjurl]

XBT review - possible contact person Simona Simoncelli SeaSoar - possible expertice within NOC in UK. @bodcmahe to explore if there is anyone who could help

[sjurl]

@sjurl follow up with @cfpo regarding progress for september meeting

[cfpo]

Progress has been slow as I haven't been able to dedicate the time needed.

Reminder that all bar 2 data guidelines have been reviewed by experts. Since the working group last met Clare has: • Converted the 'ICES data guideline for CTD data' from pdf into a word document. • Made all suggested changes from the review that she felt did not need further discussion (but these are left as track changes for further discussion if required). • Inserted comments where suggested changes may need further discussion/decision.

Next step is for the working group to meet to address the remaining questions in the CTD data guideline (I had hoped this would be possible at the last ICES DIG session but this was postponed as Clare was unable to attend).

To help this work go faster, it would be great if someone could convert all the other guidelines to word and add any required ICES branding. Any volunteers?

Apologies that I have been unable to organise a dedicated meeting to pursue this.

[sjurl]

Word version of documents available at https://community.ices.dk/Committees/DIG/_layouts/15/start.aspx#/DIG%202017/Forms/AllItems.aspx?RootFolder=%2FCommittees%2FDIG%2FDIG%202017%2F04%2E%20Working%20documents&FolderCTID=0x012000F56FB0330418724BBA5F50F2CF2A2A05&View={4EE750CD-64C7-4419-9D36-8269B06012FD}

• add to DIG master documents on sharepoint site as a separate folder

[cfpo]

Summary of status and three revised data guidelines (with outstanding questions) uploaded to SharePoint https://community.ices.dk/Committees/DIG/DIG%202023/04.%20Working%20documents/

[neil-ices-dk]

update from Clare:

A couple of years ago DIG asked other ICES Expert Groups to review the Data Guidelines.

During previous meetings I reported that all bar two of the guidelines were reviewed, with useful feedback sent through.

I have now updated three of the guidelines with the feedback. These are the guidelines for CTD, Plankton and Surface drifting buoys. These have been loaded into the Working Documents folder on the ICES DIG SharePoint for anyone to have a look at.

There are some remaining questions from reviewers that we need input from DIG on. Some are quite detailed. For example in the CTD guideline it states that files must be homogeneous. For the headers, that means that each piece of information must always be in the same place in the file The reviewer has asked us to reconsider this. “ Is having the same parameter order really necessary? It means you can't add a new sensor during a cruise. It should be ok to change sensor setup as long as it is clear in the documentation and in the metadata, the goal can still be to try to keep the same setup during a cruise.”

Other questions are more generic and I would like DIG to consider these.

1) Request for detailed template as part of the data guideline. The reviewer of the plankton data guideline suggested providing a detailed template for people to complete. “An idea would be to include a metadata form which prompts the data provider/researcher to supply all of this information. If you ask the specific question you are more likely to get the researcher to provide the information required.”

2) Request to defer to other guidance. The reviewer of the Surface drifting buoy guideline suggested we defer to global guidance rather than update the out-of-date ICES guidance. “Since there is a global drifter program (under the Data Buoy Cooperation Panel (DBCP)) that coordinate and collects all the Surface Velocity Programme (SVP) data, and establishes protocols for quality control, correction... I do not really think it is useful to submit SVP data to ICES, and rather I would encourage anyone with this idea to send the data to the GDP program. In that sense, the ICES Guidelines for Surface Drifting Buoys is from 2006, and since then, the GDP has evolved and their guidelines and protocols have changed a lot, and therefore It would be necessary and in deep review of the ICES Guidelines for Surface Drifting Buoys, than I do not think is worth doing it, since the data should go to the GDP. The GDP, obviously, publishes the data in almost real time, and provides a quality control delayed mode version.”

[cfpo]

Subgroup met 27th June 2023 and discussed outstanding issues raised by the reviewers of the Current Meter Guideline, including the suggestion to recommend an alternative template. Mark and Ruth volunteered to ask colleagues working with this type of data for input.

Group agreed that where ICES points to other data guidelines, a sentence should be included recognising the expertise of the community that developed that guidance.

Clare agreed to request that the two completed guidelines are published on the ICES library.

Group agreed to meet in late August

Agenda included below for information: Agenda 1) Status (Clare)

Plankton guideline – revised, proofed, available in 2023/Working Documents on ICES Sharepoint
CTD guideline – revised, needs to be updated following ICES DIG May 2023 decisions, available in 2023/Working Documents on ICES Sharepoint Drifting Buoy guideline – Agreed that ICES will point to global guideline, available in 2023/Working Documents on ICES Sharepoint

2) Moored Current Meter guidelines. (All)

Group to decide any outstanding issues with this guideline

Document will be shared ahead of the meeting and we will go through the questions during the meeting.

https://repository.oceanbestpractices.org/handle/11329/240

3) Linking to external guidelines (All)

Group to draft a paragraph for linking to global guidelines that ICES recommend. This can be included as an addendum to the old guidelines and can be added to the website directly.

4) Next meeting (All)

[cfpo]

On 29th June, Ruth from library responded to Clare highlighting that the ICES Data Guidelines need to be in a specific format. Email below: " A little while ago we transferred all ICES guidelines, including the Data Guidelines, to the new ICES library. You can now find all of the published Data Guidelines here: https://ices-library.figshare.com/pubtype_guidelines_data.

As part of the process we created a common template for all ICES Guidelines (attached) with some set background sections outlining basic information we wanted available as a standard for all our guidance. I can see that this document is not in the new template, which Neil mentioned could be due to the fact that the drafting started some time ago. Could you please pass it into the template and fill out the standard sections? I can then help you publish it to the new library."

[cfpo]

Subgroup met 29th August 2023 (Clare, Mark, Ruth, Hjalte) Actions: Mark to report back on Current Meter Data Guidelines after discussions with colleagues from RAPID programme in UK and USA Clare to transfer the cvompleted guidelines to the new format provided by the ICES library. Mark to support Clare to get XBT data guideline reviewed by colleague from SeaDataNet

[cfpo]

Subgroup met briefly on 3rd October and 7th November 2023. Clare submitted plankton guideline to ICES library. ICES library transformed to new format, so plankton guideline now in approved format and ready for publication. Clare checked with Neil and Sjur that it is ok to publish. Awaiting response.

[sjurl]

Publishing guidelines is done on the discression of the subgroup

[cfpo]

Plankton data guideline published 21/2/24. doi now available https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.25151648

[cfpo]

Moored current meter data guideline Private link: Guidelines for Moored Current Meter Data (figshare.com)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.26954488