Meeting the challenge of environmental data publication: an operational infrastructure and workflow for publishing data

Here we describe the defined workflow and its supporting infrastructure, which are used by the Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC) Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) (http://​eidc.​ceh.​ac.​uk/​) to enable publication of environmental data in the fields of ecology and hydrology. The methods employed and issues discussed are also relevant to publication in other domains. By utilising a clearly defined workflow for data publication, we operate a fully auditable, quality controlled series of steps permitting publication of environmental data. The described methodology meets the needs of both data producers and data users, whose requirements are not always aligned. A stable, logically created infrastructure supporting data publication allows the process to occur in a well-managed and secure fashion, while remaining flexible enough to deal with a range of data types and user requirements. We discuss the primary issues arising from data publication, and describe how many of them have been resolved by the methods we have employed, with demonstrable results. In conclusion, we expand on future directions we wish to develop to aid data publication by both solving problems for data generators and improving the end-user experience.