SAON News
An external Committee conducted a review of SAON in 2016. (A summary is found here. The full report is found here)
As a response to the review, members of the SAON Board met in Frascati, Italy, 27-28 June in order to develop a strategic framework for SAON. The framework will be reviewed and published in autumn 2017.
The headings are:
- News from the Committees
- Development of an International Arctic Observations Assessment Framework
- Arctic Science Ministerial Meeting - US Arctic Observing Network Office
- External review of SAON
- SAON Board meeting in Prague
Understanding the Changing Arctic through Data: Stewardship, Publication, and Science
Fifth International Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR-5), 15-18 January 2018, Tokyo, Japan (further information below and at https://jcar.org/isar-5/)
Session description:
Main convener: Peter L. Pulsifer
Co-conveners: Masaki Kanao, Øystein Godøy, Shannon Christoffersen Vossepoel, Hironori Yabuki, Julie Friddell
The ISAR-5 Conference aims to contribute to our understanding of a rapidly changing Arctic. These changes are being observed and experienced at a range of different scales from local to global. Science and other ways of knowing increasingly reveal that these changes are a result of a complex, interconnected physical and sociological system. Atmospheric, cryospheric and ocean drivers are interacting in ways that impact ecosystems, and all of these phenomena are connected to challenges and potential opportunities being faced by humans. Observations are at the foundation of many types of science and Indigenous knowledge, and in the 21st century these observations are typically stored as digital data. These data are transformed and mediated through analysis, visualization or other methods to form different kinds of information that is used to generate knowledge for action.
In recent years, there has been much attention paid to data and the many ways that we collect, store, manage, transform and use data. The Internet, mobile computing, and increases in computing power and storage capacities, are presenting new opportunities for supporting research and sharing knowledge. At the same time, many challenges remain in the areas of data management and use of new technology, such as securing interoperability, disclosure of data, big data treatment, data rescue, etc. In this session we call for papers that share ideas, experiences, and results related to data. Relevant topics include but are not limited to:
- Advances in data publication and citation, including establishment of new journals and tracking of data usage and decisions (such as scientific, administrative and political) made using data;
- Data rescue;
- Making data from all countries widely available;
- Improving the reusability of data;
- Innovative ways of managing data, including integration of data in Virtual Research Environments;
- Attempts to realization of the interoperability between datasets over the different disciplines;
- The integration of high performance and distributed computing in data analysis;
- Advances with data collection, including technologies simplifying data sharing, utilization, and monitoring carried out at a local scale;
- Modeling socio-ecological systems using new techniques (e.g. agent-based modeling);
- Innovations in data representation methods such as document oriented databases or linked open data;
- Documenting, modeling and benefits using vocabularies and ontologies;
- Working with Big Data.
Papers from the social sciences, Northern communities, and interdisciplinary approaches are strongly encouraged.
General Symposium information:
Calls for Abstracts and Registration for ISAR-5 are now open at https://jcar.org/isar-5/
Session list - https://jcar.org/isar-5/abstract/session_information.html
Abstract submission information - https://jcar.org/isar-5/abstract/index.html
The deadline for Abstracts is August 31, 2017.
The deadline for early-bird registration is November 15, 2017, and late registration ends on December 15, 2017.
The symposium will address “the changing Arctic and its regional to global impact: From information to knowledge and action.”
The National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR), which serves as Japan's key institution for scientific research and observation in Polar Regions, launched Polar Data Journal, a new data journal, this January. Polar Data Journal is a free-access and peer-reviewed online journal. It is dedicated to publishing original research data/datasets, furthering the reuse of high-quality data for the benefit to polar sciences.
Polar Data Journal aims to cover a broad range of research disciplines involving polar regions, especially the earth sciences and life sciences domain. The journal primarily publishes data papers, which provide detailed descriptions of research data/datasets (e.g., Methods, Data Records, and Technical Validation). It is not required that the data papers published in this journal depict any new scientific findings; hence, the journal also welcomes submissions describing valuable existing data/datasets that have not been published to date.
Some key features of the new journal are as follows:
- Polar Data Journal is a peer-reviewed journal that aims to provide high-quality data to researchers.
- Free-access journal.
- Polar Data Journal is thoroughly edited using an online editing system for quick publishing.
- The journal content is reviewed by an editing committee, which will disclose the reviewer's reports in each article of a volume.
The platform of Polar Data Journal is powered by WEKO (JAIRO Cloud), which is developed and operated by the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Japan.
For more information, please visit https://pdr.repo.nii.ac.jp/
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) Foundation Board seeks a full-time Executive Secretary of the AMAP Secretariat. The AMAP Secretariat, established for more than 25 years, supports the work of the AMAP Working Group, one of six Working Groups of the Arctic Council. The position is to be located in Tromsø, Norway.
