THE FIFE DATA PUBLICATION EXPERIMENT

The First ISLSCP Field Experiment (FIFE) provided an opportunity to te st the concept of data publication for long-term access to valuable sc ientific data. In analogy with the procedures used in research publica tion, the FIFE Information System and NASA's Pilot Land Data System ad apted the functions performed by authors, editors, and publishers to a n information management environment. Procedures and standards were de veloped to organize, quality check, document, and review data and asso ciated supporting information for publication on a series of five CD-R OM volumes. The CD-ROM series has been successfully published and is i n widespread use in the scientific community. The preliminary indicati ons are that this publication will pass the ''20-year test'' recommend ed by a committee of the National Research Council for preserving glob al change data. It is concluded that the data publication approach, us ing near-permanent distributable publication units like CD-ROMs, is an important addition to the tools for ensuring the survival of large sc ientific datasets over long periods.