Data journals induce culture change in earth sciences

Science changes direction, practice and impact when researchers discover tangible rewards. Policy organizations, funding agencies and educational institutions might wish otherwise but long experience suggests that new incentive structures, better recognition of engagement, and cultural change emerge bottom-up, not top-down. For these reasons, recent emergence of data journals issuing valid credit for data providers accompanied by guidance and assurance for data users promote rapid positive change in data sharing and impact. In Earth System Science Data (ESSD), a ‘new’ (since 2009) Copernicus journal (and, likewise, in Scientific Data by Springer/Nature since 2014 and in a few other recent journals), authors experience widespread, often unanticipated, impact of their data through use, and re-use and citation. Meanwhile, journalists discover, and appreciate, reliability and utility of data publications, particularly for climate, biodiversity or public health data products that update on regular (e.g. annual) bases. With care and cooperation, ESSD publications on topics such as agricultural or woodfire emissions, population, global carbon, methane or energy budgets, or regional pipeline capabilities: a) feed and support ‘front-page’ articles in BBC, Washington Post and other nationally- and internationally-prominent news sources; b) develop useful options for essential planetary monitoring (e.g. as components incorporated into UNFCCC’s proposed Global Stocktake); and c) demonstrate science - via normal steps of scrutiny and revision - engaged with urgent social issues. Through familiar but innovative mechanisms researchers gain validation and certification of data (for citation credit!), ensure wide re-use throughout broad research communities, and often achieve substantial public impact. These new mechanisms signal a positive change in the culture of our science.