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ToolsJonkers, Lukas, Strack, Tonke, Alonso-Garcia, Montserrat, D’haenens, Simon, Huber, Robert, Kucera, Michal, Hernández-Almeida, Iván, Jones, Chloe L. C., Metcalfe, Brett, Saraswat, Rajeev, Silye, Lóránd, Verma, Sanjay K., Abd Malek, Muhamad Naim, Auer, Gerald, Barbosa, Cátia F., Barcena, Maria A., Baumann, Karl-Heinz, Boscolo-Galazzo, Flavia, Calvelo, Joeven Austine S., Capotondi, Lucilla, Caratelli, Martina, Cardich, Jorge, Carvajal-Chitty, Humberto, Chroustová, Markéta, Coxall, Helen K., de Mello, Renata M., de Vernal, Anne, Diz, Paula, Edgar, Kirsty M., Filipsson, Helena L., Fraguas, Ángela, Furlong, Heather L., Galli, Giacomo, García Chapori, Natalia L., Granger, Robyn, Groeneveld, Jeroen, Imam, Adil, Jackson, Rebecca, Lazarus, David, Meilland, Julie, Matejová, Marína Molčan, Morard, Raphael, Morigi, Caterina, Nielsen, Sven N., Ochoa, Diana, Petrizzo, Maria Rose, Rigual-Hernández, Andrés S., Rillo, Marina C., Staitis, Matthew L., Tanık, Gamze, Tapia, Raúl, Vats, Nishant, Wade, Bridget S. and Weinmann, Anna E. (2025) Community guidelines to increase the reusability of marine microfossil assemblage data. Journal of Micropalaeontology, 44 (1). pp. 145-168. ISSN 0262-821X
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Abstract
Data on marine microfossil assemblage composition have multiple applications. Initially, they were primarily used for (chrono)stratigraphy and palaeoecology, but these data are now also widely used to study evolutionary and ecological processes, such as past biodiversity and its links with environmental dynamics, or to provide a basis for conservation efforts and biomonitoring. The large range of potential applications renders microfossil abundance data ideal for reuse. However, the complexity inherent in taxonomic data, which encompass extant and extinct species, coupled with the inherent intricacies of information on biological communities extracted from sedimentary archives, poses considerable hurdles in reusing marine microfossil data, even when they are publicly available. Here, we present guidelines derived from an online survey conducted within the marine micropalaeontological community, aimed at improving the reusability of microfossil assemblage data. These guidelines advocate for clarity and transparency in the documentation of the methods and the outcome, and we outline the data attributes required for effective reuse of micropalaeontological data. These guidelines are intended for researchers who generate microfossil abundance datasets and for reviewers, editors, and data curators at repositories. A total of 113 researchers evaluated the relevance of about 50 data attributes that might be needed to enable and maximise the reuse of marine microfossil abundance datasets. Each property is ranked based on the survey results. All information is, in principle, considered “desired”. Information that improves the reusability is ranked as “recommended”, and information that is required for reuse is ranked as “essential”. Analysis of a selection of datasets available online reveals a rather large gap between data properties deemed essential by survey participants and what is actually contained in publicly available microfossil assemblage datasets. While the survey indicates that the micropalaeontological community values good data stewardship, improving data reusability still requires new efforts to incorporate all the essential information. The guidelines presented here are intended as a step in that direction. Determining the optimal forms and formats for data sharing are obvious next steps the community needs to take.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information: | Code availability: The code used for the analysis and to compile the figures is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15411453 (Jonkers, 2025). Data availability: Survey questions and anonymised answers are available at http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12722701 (Jonkers and Strack, 2024). Financial support: This work has been funded by the German Research Foundation (NFDI4Earth 1st Cohort of Pilots, DFG project no. 460036893, https://www.nfdi4earth.de/, last access: 14 May 2025) within the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI; https://www.nfdi.de/, last access: 14 May 2025). The article processing charges for this open-access publication were covered by the University of Bremen. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | palaeontology,sdg 14 - life below water ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1911 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Geosciences |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 17 Jun 2025 11:30 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2025 00:29 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99569 |
| DOI: | 10.5194/jm-44-145-2025 |
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