Community Data Principles

New Zealand’s Antarctic and Southern Ocean data collection is widely fragmented across numerous repositories and institutions. To address this, the Antarctic Science Platform in collaboration with Antarctica New Zealand has established a metadata catalogue to provide a centralised portal for discovery and access to Antarctic and Southern Ocean data collected by New Zealand-based researchers (AntCat). The catalogue is a distributed metadata management system which creates, harvests, and replicates metadata from other sources — it does not currently host data but provides direct access when a data link is available, creating a virtual data centre for seamless discovery and access across physically distributed repositories.

These principles were developed in collaboration with Phase 1 Antarctic Science Platform researchers.

Purpose

These principles are intended to promote best practice and support the underlying design and functionality of the metadata catalogue. They cover what data providers should consider when evaluating which attributes of their data need to be formatted and described, and how these decisions influence the long-term utility of their data.

International Context

The catalogue is the most comprehensive database of New Zealand-based researchers’ Antarctic and Southern Ocean data. The system is designed to disseminate metadata to NASA’s Antarctic Metadata Directory (AMD) and other domain-specific catalogues, tools, and products including EMODnet and SOOSmap. This approach is consistent with data centres at other polar programmes (USAP, BAS, AADC), contributing to the free and open exchange of Antarctic observations and results.

Implementation

The principles are not intended to be prescriptive, and acknowledge that some Antarctic datasets have real-world constraints that can make full implementation impractical — for example, where standardised formats do not yet exist for a given data type, where data volumes are too large to store uncompressed, or where data are sensitive. Data providers who incorporate these principles into their archival workflows will ensure their data are fully integrated into the Antarctic Metadata Catalogue. At a minimum, data are best described with an internationally recognised metadata standard, enabling machine interoperability and sharing across polar data systems. Using a controlled keyword vocabulary further improves findability by enabling related records to be linked by shared characteristics such as measured parameters, instruments, and projects. Datasets should also be URL-accessible, allowing individual files to be retrieved via distinct, persistent links. Where appropriate, data should follow the Climate and Forecast (CF) Conventions; where this is not suitable, parameter terms can be drawn from the NERC Vocabulary Server. Adopting these standards maximises interoperability with data aggregators, dissemination platforms, and downstream data products.