DISS principles recommended for the data sets and services relevant to the IGOS-Partnership.
1. Continuing commitment is needed by participating national governments and international bodies to data management systems and services to ensure the establishment, maintenance, validation, description, accessibility, reliability and distribution of high-quality data.
2. Commitment to the provision of long-term observations by responsible agencies should be based on clearly articulated user needs.
3. Full and open exchange of data and products for all users in a timely fashion is a fundamental objective.
4. Data and products should be of a specified quality and consistency to meet user requirements. All data and products should be subjected to comprehensive and well documented quality control and quality assurance procedures.
5. Metadata should be assembled and maintained so that it is easily and fully accessible to users. These metadata include information on calibration, long-term quality assessments and guidance for locating and obtaining the data records.
6. All relevant data, including metadata, should be conserved and archived in suitable facilities to enable easy access. Archives should be adequately maintained to permit recalculation of the geophysical and biogeochemical data as improved algorithms become available. Procedures and criteria for setting priorities for data purging should be developed and implemented.
7. All data and products should be described in readily accessible directories, which conform to agreed-upon standards.
8. Where possible internationally-agreed standards should be used in the implementation of these principles for acquisition, processing, archiving, and distribution of data and metadata. Objective external standards should be used in calibrating data.
9. The utility and functioning of the information access and retrieval system should be carried out on a continuous basis to ensure system performance. Routine and permanent mechanisms should be put in place to evaluate and monitor observing system performance.
10. Information must be assessed to maintain consistency and eliminate errors. Where there are actual or potential disturbances to the record (e.g. due to changing technology), there should be a commitment to ensure that the internal consistency of the record is maintained.
11. Comprehensive feedback should be provided on problems with data collection or data flow, on the accuracy and usefulness of the products to the user, and on user satisfaction. Feedback should include correction of timeliness problems in data flow; correction or flagging of values for erroneous, suspect or missing data or metadata; correction of model deficiencies to produce more reliable outputs; improved design of products to meet user's needs; and knowledge of the impact and value of the products and services provided.
