The goal of the Coastal Carbon Research Coordination Network (CCRCN)
is to accelerate the pace of discovery in coastal wetland carbon science
by providing our community with access to data, analysis tools, and
synthesis opportunities. Our activities include bringing data libraries
online, creating open source analysis and modeling tools, providing
training and outreach opportunities, holding town halls, responding to
community feedback, and hosting data synthesis workshops targeted at
strategically reducing uncertainty in coastal carbon science issues. Our
first focal activity is building a public online data library of soil
carbon data.
The Coastal Carbon Research Coordination Network (herein Network)
builds on work by the Blue Carbon Initiative, the NASA Blue Carbon
Monitoring System, and the US Carbon Cycle Science Program. Our data
management principles incorporate experience from these efforts, and
best practices developed in collaboration with data management
specialists across the Smithsonian and our partner institutions.
Core Principles
- We are responsive to a global community of scientists and
practitioners.
- We focus on quantifiable improvements to the state of the
science.
- We adopt protocols, policies, and communication platforms that
facilitate transparency, ease of adoption, program sustainability, and
data stability.
Defined Roles and Responsibilities within the CCRCN
- Principle Investigators - Emmett Duffy, Patrick
Megonigal, and James Holmquist are responsible for executing the project
as proposed to NSF, reporting to NSF on project progress, and carrying
out the fiduciary requirements of the grant.
- Director - The Director (Patrick Megonigal) is
responsible for directing the activities of the Principal Investigators,
and overall management of the Network.
- Manager - The Manager (currently James Holmquist)
is hired by the Director with input from the steering committee. The
manager is responsible for leading the daily activities of the Network,
responding to stakeholders, and interacting with the Steering
Committee.
- Steering Committee Members - Steering committee
members are responsible for advising the Director and Manager on Network
management, adherence to core principles, workshop topics, and
evaluating steering committee nominees.
- CCRCN Personnel - Principal Investigators, the
Steering Committee, and people with official Smithsonian affiliations
who work on Network-related tasks. Personnel are responsible for
implementing the activities of the Network.
- Collaborators / Collaborating Organizations -
Collaborators include researchers who are not Network personnel, but are
otherwise actively contributing to Network products in collaboration
with Network personnel, or as part of data synthesis workshops.
Collaborators are expected to participate at the level of co-author on
synthesis products. Collaborating Organization responsibilities are
similar to Collaborators except the organization and the Network have
entered into a memorandum of understanding to formalize expectations
with respect to the Network. Collaborating organizations are expected to
explore financial support of activities that are not supported by the
NSF funding that established the Network, and to explore opportunities
to secure funding to support Network activities beyond the initial five
years of NSF funding.
- Partners / Partner Organizations - Include anyone
engaged in any Network activities, but more informally than
Collaborators. These include remote consultations, town halls, Twitter,
webinars, online surveys, and participating in public comment periods.
The best way to be recognized as a partner is to sign up for regular
Network email updates. Partner Organizations include any organizations
that interact with the Network in a manner similar to Partners, but have
entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Network that
formalizes activities such as consultation or other non-monetary support
for Network goals.
- Users - Anyone using data structures or synthesis
products created by the Network. There is no obligation to involve
Network personnel or collaborators in individual research efforts beyond
the workshops funded by the Network NSF grant. Users are responsible for
properly citing Network synthesis products, and properly citing original
authors when datasets curated or synthesized by the Network are
downloaded and reused. See the Data Use
Policy.
Steering Committee Membership
The three Principal Investigators are permanent members of the
Steering Committee. Five additional members will be chosen to assist the
Network with existing or emerging needs as identified by the Steering
Committee. In principle, the members should represent a range of
stakeholder interests and technical expertise. Members serve for one
year, but can be reappointed for one year at the discretion of the
Director. Candidates for the steering committee can nominate themselves
or be nominated by their colleagues. The steering committee will vote on
replacements, and members stepping down will help to choose their own
replacement. Rotations are staggered so that no more than half of the
rotating members on the Steering Committee are replaced in a given
year.
Data Synthesis Workshops
Data synthesis products led by the Network will be developed over the
course of five workshops organized and led by Network personnel and
collaborators. Potential collaborators can propose
a workshop, or apply to participate in workshops. The Steering
Committee will vote on topics and participants for each workshop, which
will typically have 12-15 participants.
Coauthorship Policy
Those accepted to participate in any of the five synthesis workshops
hosted by the Network will be expected to contribute before, during, and
following the workshop, and will be granted co-authorship on
publications resulting from the effort. We will follow the American
Geophysical Union’s 2017 Scientific and Professional Ethics: Guideline
B. Ethical Obligations of Authors/Contributors for determining
co-authorship. Submitting data to the network alone will not merit
co-authorship in data syntheses. If done according to the protocols
established herein, it will result in citation.
Co-authorship policies in data sharing exercises often benefit
established researchers from western industrialized nations at the
expense of those from groups with less institutional power . We commit
to adopting policies and technologies that facilitate engagement of
students, people with indigenous knowledge, and researchers from low and
middle income countries as attendees and co-authors in synthesis
activities. This policy will be implemented within the limits of NSF
CCRCN grant resources.
Data Use Policy
We refer to users as anyone using either data we curate, or synthesis
products we create. Data that is curated, but not created, by the
Network, should not be attributed to the Network. Users should cite all
dataset DOIs and credit the datasets’ original authors. All synthesis
products created by the Network and associated collaborators will be
listed under a Creative Commons With Attribution license. The Network
should be acknowledged and cited appropriately if users utilize any of
the data structures, tools, or scripts developed by Network and
associated collaborators. We will develop additional tools to assist
users in generating lists of citations, but users will be ultimately
responsible for correctly citing all data used.