Catalog of Ocean Data Science Initiatives (v. 2)

ODSI Identification and Sampling:

ODSI identification began in January 2020. We began with a purposive sample of ODSIs based on the research team’s prior knowledge of and participation in global and regional ODSIs. This sample allowed us to pilot and refine our metadata catalog approach. We then used a combination of keyword searches on Google using search terms such as ‘ocean data’ ‘marine data’ and ‘fisheries data’. Adopting a snowball sampling method, we reviewed the websites of ODSIs that came up in our initial search to find references to additional ODSIs. To determine if an entity was an ODSI, we reviewed web pages for information on purpose, goals, objectives, mission, values (usually in tabs labeled ‘About’ ‘Goals’ or ‘Objectives’) and we looked for links to ‘data’ or ‘data products.’ Entities were selected for our catalog based on two criteria: 1) their stated purpose, goals, objectives, mission, values indicated a commitment to advancing ocean science and data and 2) if they focused on regional or global scales. We selected and categorized ODSIs according to three broad focal areas in global and regional oceans governance: fisheries extraction, biodiversity conservation, and basic ocean science development. We initially identified more than 150 ODSIs. As we populated the catalog in 2023-2024, we removed ODSIs that were no longer active, as well as ODSIs that, upon further analysis, did not fall within our three focal areas. We also learned that some ODSIs initially treated as two separate ODSIs were in fact connected, so we deleted duplicates and combined the data for these ODSIs.  We assigned each ODSI a Unique Identifier. Our final catalogue consists of data regarding 96 ODSIs.

Data Collection:

We populated the catalog with data gathered from ODSI websites. We began with an exploratory analysis on a subset of 30 ODSIs, and we coded 66 variables for this subset. We selected 55 of these variables to complete for all ODSIs in our final sample. We also added 4 variables after our exploratory analysis, which we partially coded before suspending that portion of the analysis. In total, we described 70 variables relating to ODSIs’ work, which we broadly grouped into five categories 1) the data architecture (20 variables) 2) the ODSI’s governance characteristics (15 variables), 3) characteristics relevant to the ODSI’s potential to make ocean worlds or ontologies (15 variables), 4) the (explicit or implicit) policy and governance ‘solutions’ and relations the ODSI promotes (12 variables), and 5) the ODSI’s implicit or explicit treatment of issues of equity (8 variables). Detailed definitions and coding of each variable are described in the ReadMe. We also recorded separate notes fields for each of the five overarching categories. All partially coded variables are identified in the ReadMe. We focused our analysis on the ODSI websites themselves; we did not analyze the websites of separate organizations linked through the ODSI.

Researchers are welcome to use the data in this dataset with proper attribution.

Version one of this catalog can be found at: