FAIR Publication of Geodata - A Workaround

FAIR Publication of Geodata - A Workaround Christine Jung-Dahlke, TIB –Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology , Welfengarten 1 B, 30167 Hannover, Germany In current geoscientific research, a wide variety of spatial data formats are processed using geoinformatical tools, often originating from different sources and produced within various institutions (universities, research institutions, government agencies or engineering offices). At the same time, geospatial information has the potential to be reused in various disciplinary contexts, such as environmental research, medical research or economics and social sciences. Therefore the scholarly publication of geodata and corresponding software for data analysis, in line with the FAIR principles for data and software, is gaining importance. A recent survey conducted by the NFDI4Earth Consortium Helpdesk [1, 2] as well as daily advisory practices within the Lower Saxony initiative for research data (NDS-FDM) demonstrate, that the FAIR publication of heterogeneous datasets, metadata, and associated software tools for data analysis is not always easy for researchers to implement. The barriers are manifold: The file formats or the combination of different formats is difficult to handle, storage structures are perhaps not fully compliant with the FAIR criteria (e.g., assignment of DOIs, licensing), access to infrastructure, content and services is tied to institutional affiliation of the authors or to specific software or sensors. Even sustainability in terms of long-term data storage and availability or large data volumes can hinder data publications in line with the FAIR principles. Methods and Results Motivation [1] Henzen, C., & Niers, T. (2025). Learning more about Earth System Sciences users (NFDI4Earth Report). NFDI4Earth Community on Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15227869 [2] Hübner, A. (2024). Results of online survey on incentives for FAIR and open data practices (NFDI4Earth Report). NFDI4Earth Community on Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1280720 [3] Wilkinson, M., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, I. et al. (2016). The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Sci Data 3, 160018 https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18 [4] Chue Hong, N. P., Katz, D. S., Barker, M., et a.… RDA FAIR4RS WG. (2022). FAIR Principles for Research Software (FAIR4RS Principles) (1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.15497/RDA00068 [5] Rümmler, A. (2025). Zenodo-GitHub-Integration Showcase (v1.1.1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14865642 References FAIR Principles •interoperability •reusability The workaround presented here shows a way for the scholarly publications of geodatasets and software tools while considering the FAIR principles. It offers a transitional solution for publishing geoscientific research data when suitable repositories are not yet available, or when existing repositories do not yet cover all publishing requirements of researchers (as is the case e.g. for the publication of geoscientific 3-D data). Discussion The presented approach contributes to make geoscientific research data available for subsequent use by other scientists, thereby also increasing the visibility of the respective research projects and results. In particular, the presented solution enhances the reproducibility and traceability of research findings. However, the development and provision of suitable repositories for geospatial data should continue to be pursued by the geoscientific community. The combination of various services, such as Zenodo and GitHub , or the creation of communities in the Zenodo repository enables the grouping of different datasets with their permanent identifiers (DOIs) for a research project. Permanent identifiers, licensing options, and machine-readable metadata increase the chance of reusing geodata in an academic and non-academic environment. •findability •accessibility The FAIR principles are important for data [3] and software [4]: [5]