Mind the metadata: Community guidelines for increasing the reusability of marine microfossil datasets

Two centuries of micropaleontological research leaves our science with an invaluable depository of occurrence and abundance of microfossil data. Data that were initially collected for (chrono)stratigraphy and palaeoecology are now widely used to study evolutionary and ecological processes, such as past biodiversity and its links with environmental dynamics. The large amounts of work and resources that went into the production of the existing data, and the unique nature of many of the samples from which the data originate are strong argument to facilitate new analyses by data reuse. Micropalaeontologists have been good at recording and sharing observations and a large portion of the generated data is publicly available. However, taxonomic data is complex and encompasses extant and extinct species, coupled with the intricacies of information on biological communities extracted from sedimentary archives, thus poses considerable hurdles to the reuse of marine microfossil data.
The solution lies in sharing new data in a way that makes it easy to reuse, as well as in curating existing data to the same standard. A community survey was conducted as an attempt to reach such understanding of the importance of metadata recorded for microfossils. 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. The guidelines derived from the survey advocate for clarity and transparency in the documentation of the methods and the outcome of the studies, and outline data attributes considered as essential for effective reuse of micropaleontological data. The guidelines are intended for researchers who generate microfossil abundance datasets, as well as for reviewers, editors, and data curators at repositories. The survey indicates that the micropaleontological community values good data stewardship, and the analysis reveals a large gap between data properties regarded as essential and what is actually contained in available microfossil assemblage datasets. It is clear that improving the reusability of micropaleontological data will require large new efforts to incorporate all the essential information. The next steps for our community will be to determine the optimal forms and formats for data sharing.
Acknowledgements: We are indebted to the researchers who helped design the survey questions and to the people who helped with the dissemination of the survey. Furthermore, we are grateful for the participation of all scientists who took the time to fill out the survey.