Coordinating a Sustainable Community-Driven Network for FAIR Ocean Sciences

This is a poster that was presented at the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting on February 23, 2026 in Glasgow, Scotland.Abstract: Findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) ocean data are core upstream inputs for enabling a wide range of downstream ocean science research outputs. Generating well-documented, high-quality, reusable primary data requires adoption of leading disciplinary data practices, including adoption of data standards. However, for researchers generating valuable primary data, finding leading practices on a data-type-by-data-type basis and understanding which have been community-vetted, can be a significant undertaking. We introduce new work to convene and co-develop a low-tech, sustainable community network for data sharing practices within ocean sciences. Uniting international disciplinary leadership, data repositories, journal editors, and researchers, our work seeks to (1) investigate the current state of data and software management practices in the ocean sciences, conducting a gap analysis and assessment of misalignments, (2) develop ocean-science-specific resources to guide researchers to vetted data management practices, workflows, and repositories, and (3) build a governance structure to expand the work to include additional data types and sustain periodic updates as leading practices and repositories evolve over time. Our work centers around co-development practices and cross-stakeholder engagement to support mutually beneficial solutions and ensure that data are optimally reusable for a diverse array of end-users.