Understanding the Data Management Needs and Data Sharing Challenges of Environmental Scientists

Surveys of scientists for the NSF DataONE project and the USGS Southeast Information Node of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), as well as follow-up interviews, show that environmental scientists are interested in sharing their data with certain conditions, such as citations or acknowledgment. Government scientists are more likely to be satisfied with the processes for data management than are academic scientists, but less likely to be satisfied with the process of describing data or tools for documentation. Both groups value trusted and complete sources. There are many ways that scientists can be assisted with data management throughout the data life cycle.