Author: Cora Hӧrstmann
We are excited to share our article “Perspectives on Documenting Methods to Create Ocean Best Practices” focusing on the challenges and opportunities of ocean observation method documentation that we just published in Frontiers in Marine Science under the research theme Best Practices in Ocean Observing.
We contextualize our guide for documenting best practices (Towards BP4BP) and reflect on how the effective documentation of ocean methods, standards, and guides can help to improve discoverability, interlinkages, and thus the evolution of distributed methods into common best practices within the ocean community. Further, we discuss multiple dimensions of method documentation, including the importance of ethics and inclusivity. We thus hope to support the community’s collaborative actions through practical guidance on method documentation, ultimately helping to meet societal goals as the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development advances.