WDC for Geophysics, Beijing（中国地球物理学科中心）
 
   

Data Preservation Policy (draft)

  • Policy purpose

    • WDC for Geophysics, Beijing is the designated archive for all the data of four comprehensive stations and about fifty GNSS sites hosted by IGGCAS. It hosts the observation data from STERN. It also hosts the mirror sites of Madrigal Database (http://madrigal.iggcas.ac.cn/) and DIDBase (http://www.epp.ac.cn/DIDBase.asp). Responsible for long-term preservation of these data, WDC for Geophysics, Beijing endeavours to maintain its high standards of data preservation and management. In this regard, the objective of this preservation policy is to outline the standards and procedures which the WDC for Geophysics, Beijing aims to uphold in order to guarantee the long-term preservation of data deposited and stored at the Centre.

  • Repository purpose

    • The WDC for Geophysics, Beijing exists to support the advancement of the global geophysical sciences (in particular, space physics) through the long-term preservation database. This objective is underpinned by providing high quality information services and resources to be used for research, teaching and learning. To fulfil this mission, its core activities include the preservation, curation and dissemination of geophysical data with the aim of guaranteeing that all data entrusted to it by depositors remain suitable for the needs of its primary users now and in the future. These operations are overseen by a board of advisory (http://www.geophys.ac.cn/Advisory.asp) whose members are representative of the various stakeholder communities.

  • Policy scope

    • The scope of this policy is limited to the data collections of WDC for Geophysics, Beijing. This document describes the preservation processes for all data (include ionosonde data, meteor radar data, GPS data, magnetometer data) deposited and stored at the WDC for Geophysics, Beijing. This document also covers the preservation of any accompanying metadata associated with deposited data.

  • Preservation standards and ethics

    • All metadata and data are stored in international standard format. All metadata is in Dublin Core Metadata formats. The WDC for Geophysics, Beijing is also a member of the World Data System (WDS) and as such has been certified as being compliant with international standards for digital repositories. The WDC for Geophysics, Beijing endeavours to adhere as closely as possible to FAIR guiding principles (Wilkinson, M. D.et al., 2016) and provide findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable datasets to its user community.

    We are a member of National Earth System Science Data Center (former Data Sharing Infrastructure of Earth System Science) and hold the Geophysics center belongs to it. Most of our data is also shared, transferred and published in the websites (http://geospace.geodata.cn/, http://www.geodata.cn/, these websites are in Chinese). The WDC for Geophysics, Beijing therefore has multi backup to ensure that data granted to it by data depositors can be preserved indefinitely.

  • Workflow

  • Archival storage

    • As a repository for the global scientific community, the WDC for Geophysics, Beijing seeks to ensure the indefinite retention of all information resources stored at the centre. As such, the WDC for Geophysics, Beijing¡¯s archive system aims to achieve secure long-term storage of data by conducting a number of data preservation and security activities.

    To ensure safe archival and prevent loss of data, the WDC for Geophysics, Beijing stores data files on storage platforms with many layers of redundancy. In parallel to this, continuous local backup copies of the data files are taken. Our storage devices are IBM DS5020, NetStor iSUM790 and Lenovo ThinkSystem DE2000H Disk Array. Periodic backups are made based on Symantec Backup Exec and HP MSL4048 tape library. We also have a Synology NAS system and use Synology Drive Server to perform real-time backup. Onsite backups of important data are taken daily and full offsite backups of the infrastructure, including all virtual machines, are taken multiple times per week. All backup data are archived monthly to tape and stored securely offsite in a temperature-controlled environment.

  • Funding

    • WDC for Geophysics, Beijing is hosted by IGGCAS. The IGGCAS is one of the most important and well-known geosciences research institutions in China (http://english.igg.cas.cn/au/). The WDC for Geophysics, Beijing owns the data center of the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Research Network (STERN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (http://www.stern.ac.cn/, substantial long-term funds from Chinese Academy of Sciences). It also holds the Geophysics center, National Earth System Science Data Center (http://geospace.geodata.cn/, substantial long-term funds from Ministry of Science and Technology of the People¡¯s Republic of China). It also has one data sub-center of the Meridian Space Weather Monitoring Project (substantial long-term funds from the Meridian Space Weather Monitoring Project).

  • References

    • Wilkinson, M., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, I. et al. The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Sci Data 3, 160018 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18


Last change 16/04/2020