Facilitating reuse of planetary spatial research data – Conceptualizing an open map repository as part of a Planetary Research Data Infrastructure

Abstract

In recent decades, the research community has been dealing with a growing amount and variety of new research data and derived research information. While primary research data, as derived from instruments, are commonly well maintained, derived research data might not always share the same fate. Scientific studies, resulting in further derived data, what we will call here as research data, does not often share the same attention. Fortunately, in the planetary sciences, most primary research data are commonly freely accessible for researchers to use, while research results have commonly not been re-inserted into the research cycle and a discussion about the process has only recently been initiated but there are not concrete methods or efforts to maintain this derived research data. We here discuss the requirements and needs in the planetary sciences to develop and coordinate a platform for research data and develop this idea using planetary cartographic products as an example of a higher-level research product that undergoes various development stages across different organizational levels. We here will visit the current practice and provide a number of scenarios showing how such a research-data life-cycle could look like in the field of planetary research. In order to develop a conceptual framework, experience from established terrestrial research-data frameworks and spatial data infrastructures are integrated into the discussion.