Advancing Open Science in Oceanography: A Global Assessment of Data Availability and Sharing Practices

Although open science practices have become the standard in disseminating research to research communities, there is a strong discrepancy between declarative principles and actual practice. While this gap has been minimized in some science systems, by certain journal publishers, and in scientific disciplines, there is still a long pathway to fully realizing open science principles. One aspect of open science is the open research data policy, which includes integrating research data with articles, guided by FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse) principles, particularly emphasizing the reproducibility of research for which open research data is a prerequisite.  This principle applies to the field of ocean sciences, which is rapidly evolving with new technological advancements. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive global analysis of research data availability in oceanography over the 5-year period (2018-2022). This analysis involved a randomized selection of 1000 scientific papers in total (200 per year) indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection under the category “Oceanography”. Our investigation encompasses a broad spectrum of oceanographic parameters, spanning sea surface temperatures, ocean currents, sea-level, salinity, and biological indicators, both measured and modelled. We aimed to examine data sharing principles associated with papers, both at a declarative level (i.e., following a data availability statement, if any) and in reality (i.e., checking whether the data is available from public repositories or provided by authors). Our analysis included bibliometric and publications data (e.g., number of authors, country of the corresponding author, multi-country authorship, publisher, journal, impact factor, number of citations, existence and form of a data availability statement, real data availability). Additionally, we contacted corresponding authors to inquire about the data availability, especially if the data was not already accessible from public repositories. With such approach, we aim to highlight the current state of data availability in oceanography and track changes since the introduction of FAIR principles to the research community, ultimately fostering a collaborative and open research culture.