A Guide to Using GitHub for Developing and Versioning Data Standards and Reporting Formats

Robert Crystal-Ornelas; Charuleka Varadharajan; Ben Bond-Lamberty; Kristin Boye; Madison Burrus; Shreyas Cholia; Michael Crow; Joan Damerow; Ranjeet Devarakonda; Kim S. Ely; Amy Goldman; Susan Heinz; Valerie Hendrix; Zarine Kakalia; Stephanie C. Pennington; Emily Robles; Alistair Rogers; Maegen Simmonds; Terri Velliquette; Helen Weierbach; Pamela Weisenhorn; Jessica N. Welch; Deborah A. Agarwal

doi:10.1029/2021EA001797

A Guide to Using GitHub for Developing and Versioning Data Standards and Reporting Formats

Robert Crystal-Ornelas, Charuleka Varadharajan, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Kristin Boye, Madison Burrus, Shreyas Cholia, Michael Crow, Joan Damerow, Ranjeet Devarakonda, Kim S. Ely, Amy Goldman, Susan Heinz, Valerie Hendrix, Zarine Kakalia, Stephanie C. Pennington, Emily Robles, Alistair Rogers, Maegen Simmonds, Terri Velliquette, Helen WeierbachPamela Weisenhorn, Jessica N. Welch, Deborah A. Agarwal

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Data standardization combined with descriptive metadata facilitate data reuse, which is the ultimate goal of the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) principles. Community data or metadata standards are increasingly created through an approach that emphasizes collaboration between various stakeholders. Such an approach requires platforms for collaboration on the development process that centers on sharing information and receiving feedback. Our objective in this study was to conduct a systematic review to identify data standards and reporting formats that use version control for developing data standards and to summarize common practices, particularly in earth and environmental sciences. Out of 108 data standards and reporting formats identified in our review, 32 used GitHub as the version control platform, and no other platforms were used. We found no universally accepted methodology for developing and publishing data standards. Many GitHub repositories did not use key features that could help developers to gather user feedback, or to create and revise standards that build on previous work. We provide guidance for community-driven standard development and associated documentation on GitHub based on a systematic review of existing practices.

Original language	English
Article number	e2021EA001797
Journal	Earth and Space Science
Volume	8
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EA001797
State	Published - Aug 2021

Funding

Robert Crystal‐Ornelas, Charuleka Varadharajan, Shreyas Cholia, Valerie Hendrix, Joan Damerow, Madison Burrus, Zarine Kakalia, Emily Robles, Maegen Simmonds, and Deborah A. Agarwal were funded through the ESS‐DIVE repository by the U.S. DOE’s Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research under contract number DE‐AC02‐05CH11231. Kim S. Ely and Alistair Rogers were supported through the US Department of Energy contract number DE‐SC0012704 to Brookhaven National Laboratory. Reporting format development was supported by ESS‐DIVE’s Community Funds, through the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the Department of Energy, Office of Science. The authors thank Dr. Chelle Gentemann, Dr. Peter Desmet, and one anonymous reviewer for their insightful comments on our manuscript. Robert Crystal-Ornelas, Charuleka Varadharajan, Shreyas Cholia, Valerie Hendrix, Joan Damerow, Madison Burrus, Zarine Kakalia, Emily Robles, Maegen Simmonds, and Deborah A. Agarwal were funded through the ESS-DIVE repository by the U.S. DOE?s Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research under contract number DE-AC02-05CH11231. Kim S. Ely and Alistair Rogers were supported through the US Department of Energy contract number DE-SC0012704 to Brookhaven National Laboratory. Reporting format development was supported by ESS-DIVE?s Community Funds, through the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the Department of Energy, Office of Science. The authors thank Dr. Chelle Gentemann, Dr. Peter Desmet, and one anonymous reviewer for their insightful comments on our manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the Department of Energy
Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research	DE‐AC02‐05CH11231
U.S. DOE?s Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research
U.S. Department of Energy	DE‐SC0012704
Office of Science

Keywords

FAIR data
TRUST principles
data repositories
metadata
open science

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10.1029/2021EA001797

Cite this

Crystal-Ornelas, R., Varadharajan, C., Bond-Lamberty, B., Boye, K., Burrus, M., Cholia, S., Crow, M., Damerow, J., Devarakonda, R., Ely, K. S., Goldman, A., Heinz, S., Hendrix, V., Kakalia, Z., Pennington, S. C., Robles, E., Rogers, A., Simmonds, M., Velliquette, T., ... Agarwal, D. A. (2021). A Guide to Using GitHub for Developing and Versioning Data Standards and Reporting Formats. Earth and Space Science, 8(8), Article e2021EA001797. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EA001797

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abstract = "Data standardization combined with descriptive metadata facilitate data reuse, which is the ultimate goal of the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) principles. Community data or metadata standards are increasingly created through an approach that emphasizes collaboration between various stakeholders. Such an approach requires platforms for collaboration on the development process that centers on sharing information and receiving feedback. Our objective in this study was to conduct a systematic review to identify data standards and reporting formats that use version control for developing data standards and to summarize common practices, particularly in earth and environmental sciences. Out of 108 data standards and reporting formats identified in our review, 32 used GitHub as the version control platform, and no other platforms were used. We found no universally accepted methodology for developing and publishing data standards. Many GitHub repositories did not use key features that could help developers to gather user feedback, or to create and revise standards that build on previous work. We provide guidance for community-driven standard development and associated documentation on GitHub based on a systematic review of existing practices.",

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Crystal-Ornelas, R, Varadharajan, C, Bond-Lamberty, B, Boye, K, Burrus, M, Cholia, S, Crow, M, Damerow, J, Devarakonda, R, Ely, KS, Goldman, A, Heinz, S, Hendrix, V, Kakalia, Z, Pennington, SC, Robles, E, Rogers, A, Simmonds, M, Velliquette, T, Weierbach, H, Weisenhorn, P, Welch, JN & Agarwal, DA 2021, 'A Guide to Using GitHub for Developing and Versioning Data Standards and Reporting Formats', Earth and Space Science, vol. 8, no. 8, e2021EA001797. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EA001797

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A Guide to Using GitHub for Developing and Versioning Data Standards and Reporting Formats

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