Data Stewardship in the Earth Sciences

Science data collection and documentation practices have changed radically over the last several hundred years, most importantly since the advent of the digital age. Data centers, as repositories for that science data, only had their genesis in the early twentieth century, yet have in excess of 50 years experience managing digital science data. In the Earth Sciences, for the past 15+ years, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) has been working to make Earth science data more discoverable, accessible, and usable by more people. As a part of this effort, the ESIP Data Stewardship Committee has worked on a variety of recommendations, best practices, and guidelines that have significantly moved data stewardship in the Earth sciences forward, with impacts ranging from influencing how data management is done within government agencies and by other data stewards, to providing guidelines for citation of Earth science data used by publishers in the Earth sciences. Completed and ongoing activities of the committee are described. Interested readers are invited to join our community.