A key feature of best practice documents is the review process by the community of experts. Only in this way can the many experiences of individuals be brought together in a single coherent best practices document. A peer review process for a journal, involving two or three reviewers and a journal’s editorial team, is obviously no substitute for the experience of a community of experts.
WHY A PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL?
The OBPS team identified a strong need for scientists and others interested in BP to have access to a specific journal specialising in Best Practices related publications. A dedicated journal promotes the visibility of Best Practices related work in the ocean community. It allows publications on methodologies for the whole field of ocean observing and addresses the challenges of improving observing capabilities (including observations, data management and applications) and interoperability.
OBPS joined forces with Frontiers in Marine Science to create a Research Topic entitled “Best Practices in Ocean Observing“ in the Ocean Observing section. All published content will be cross-archived in the OBPS repository, where users can link it to more complete technical documentation or videos.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Frontiers in Marine Science offers a variety of article types. The most commonly used article types for the RT “Best Practices in Ocean Observing” are Review, Perspective, Original Research, Protocols, Technology and Code. Please choose the category that is most appropriate for the content of your submission.
We are committed to scientific ethics and aim to make methods that articles are based on as transparent as possible and therefore ask authors to:
- Provide persistent links to any data used in your article (e.g. data DOI). Please ensure data is hosted in a trusted and sustained repository, and has complete metadata.
- Provide persistent links to Manuals, Standard Operating Procedures, or other full methodological documents your article refers to. Authors are strongly encouraged to use a DOI issued by the OBPS. Please contact us for assistance in submitting documents to the system, should it be needed.
In case you are submitting a manuscript that is considered a “Best Practice Document” please add a section to the document manuscript that outlines the process of how community agreement was achieved.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE
A submission deadline is found on the Research Topic web page but it is extended at regular intervals.
For further information , contact the editorial team via the Research Topic web page, or email info@oceanbestpractices.org