Summary
The following is a summary of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Data Policy. WCRP encourages promotion of and open access to scientific data. Where research data is fully owned by WCRP, including any of its projects or bodies, these data should be made freely available, through adequate mechanisms and to the maximum extent possible. Where WCRP projects hold the copyright to databases that they created from external data sets, it is encouraged to make the database available under an appropriate open-access license. Where WCRP-related projects rely on research data by external providers, WCRP encourages data owners to make these data freely and openly accessible to the maximum extent possible. This implies that data are:
- Available free of cost
- Accessible
- Published via citable, persistent and traceable means
- Complete, quality controlled, with mechanisms for error reporting in place
- Published and equipped with meta-data in ways that make the data discoverable, intelligible, assessable and usable
WCRP also calls upon data users to ensure attribution, citation and recognition of the origin and producers of research data.
Open and free access to data should be the standard that we adhere to and promote across the WCRP community and at an international level, with funding agencies, learned societies, research institutions, agencies, ministries, expert panels and other groups involved in science data policy planning. WCRP promotes the development, installment and harmonization of, as well as advocacy for, interoperable open-data policies in climate research and Earth system science, to the maximum extent possible, for the benefit of science and society.
Please see the full World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Data Policy for further information or clarification.
