Inaugural Editorial
Ge, Q. S.
Editor-in-Chief
Professor and Director General of Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research,
Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGSNRR/CAS)
Vice President of Geographical Society of China (GSC)
The bilingual Chinese-English Journal of Global Change Data & Discovery was launched in March 2017. It is co-sponsored by the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGSNRR/CAS) and the Geographical Society of China (GSC) for meeting the needs of the scientific community and the broader society in global change studies and sustainability.
Open research data, with the requisite quality and made available on a timely basis are not just good data management principles, but integral parts of China’s national strategy in the era of big data practice. Scientists from IGSNRR/CAS established a new mechanism of global change research data publishing and related repository beginning in June 2014, including metadata, data products and data papers, based on intellectual property protection and open access principles. The initial Global Change Research Data Publishing & Repository (GCdataPR) cooperated with the Acta Geographica Sinica also in 2014 to publish data products and the data papers, which were all released with Di-
gital Object Identifiers.
Welcomed by the scientific communities in global change studies, as well as in the broader earth sciences, the new Journal of Global Change Data & Discovery is an important component of the established GCdataPR. The focus of the new journal is on the data papers, of course, but also on the discoveries, new methodologies, and standards based on data-intensive research. In addition to original papers related to the data products and disco-
veries, short communications may be published in the journal on a data reviews and comments.
The GCdataPR is thus a comprehensive system of data publishing, long-term preservation, and open access to metadata, data products and papers on the Journal of Global Change Data & Discovery. Data products are usually associated with data center activities and data papers are consistent with academic journals. As a consequence, the GCdataPR has two editorial boards, with one responsible for the data products and the other for the Journal of Global Change Data & Discovery. A single editorial office of the GCdataPR takes the executive responsibility for the publishing and distribution of the data, including metadata, data pro-
ducts and papers on the Journal of Global Change Data & Discovery, based on the Open Access principles. The editorial boards are composed of international experts in the field of global change research. All of the GCdataPR publications, including metadata, data products and papers, are subject to peer review. The IGSNRR/CAS Library serves as the permanent repository of the published data.
The bilingual Journal of Global Change Data & Discovery will be published and disse-
minated in both an online edition and a print version. A dataset in any language will be assigned a same digital identifier; a journal article in any language will be assigned a same digital identifier. The print version of the journal will be published in a bilingual bound volume.
The GCdataPR, including the Journal of Global Change Data & Discovery is the data publishing and sharing platform for the global change research program of China. Not only, does it provide the data infrastructure of CODATA PASTD (the Task Group on Preservation of and Open Access to S&T Data in/for/with Developing Countries) for data publishing and sharing for developing countries, it forms a trusted data center, a regular member of the World Data System, of the International Council of Sciences (WDS/ICSU), the Data Publishing Center of China Integrated Earth Observation System (China GEOSS), and the Data Provider and Broker of the International Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). It is on the searchable list of the Data Citation Index (DCI) provided by Clarivate Analytics.
The IGSNRR/CAS was established in 1940, and it is now the biggest research institute in geography in the world. Two of the 58 regular members of the WDS are located in the IGSNRR/CAS: the World Data Center on Renewable Resources and Environment and the GCdataPR. Seven key laboratories are located in the institute, including one national Lab., four CAS Lab., and two ministerial key Lab. The IGSNRR sponsors ten academic journals.
The Geographical Society of China (GSC), founded in 1909, is one of the earliest academic societies in China. The GSC has more than 20,000 personal members and 31 group members, they are actively involved in its activities each year. This work is performed in 22 scientific commissions (SC), 9 branch societies (BS), 8 working commissions (WC), 5 working teams, and 7 regional representative offices. The GSC supports 18 academic journals.
http://www.geodoi.ac.cn/
http://dx.doi.org/10.3974/
Citation: Ge, Q.S. Inaugural Editorial [J]. Journal of Global Change Data & Discovery, 2017, 1(1): 1-2.
DOI: 10.3974/geodp.2017.01.01.