Is FAIR Sufficient for Interactive Data Services? Ensuring Sustainability and Reliability of the IPCC WGI Interactive Atlas

The FAIR principles — Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable — underpin Open Science but does not fully ensure the long-term usability of interactive data services like the IPCC WGI Interactive Atlas. Drawing on lessons learned from developing and operating the Interactive Atlas, this presentation explores the challenges of sustaining such services, which rely not only on FAIR-compliant data and software but also on continuous stewardship, infrastructure maintenance, and institutional commitment.

Scientific quality and transparency of the Interactive Atlas are supported through expert assessment by the IPCC authors, provenance documentation, and Complex Citation, which combine the attribution of credit for assessed digital objects with the traceability of digital IPCC results. Yet, sustaining reliability requires ongoing stewardship of both data and software to prevent degradation and preserve reproducibility. Addressing these needs demands joint efforts of the IPCC Data Distribution Centre (DDC) Partners to maintain data, documentation, and interactive components for a diverse user community. FAIR alone is not enough — long-term data preservation and infrastructure maintenance are essential to ensure the sustainability and trustworthiness of interactive data services in Earth system science.

By reflecting on both the successes and limitations of the Interactive Atlas, this contribution offers insights relevant to other Earth system science communities developing interactive or service-oriented data products. These approaches are also applicable to fields beyond Earth system science.