REPOSITORY
POLICY, TERMS OF USE, CONTENT SCOPE

1.  Introduction
The Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS) is hosted by the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) of the UNESCO-IOC as an IOC coordinated activity (IODE and the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) . The repository is a Methodological Management System provided for the ocean community to share their practices, standards, protocols, methods, standard operating procedures etc. The OBPS Repository is not an archive for general publications on marine and aquatic sciences - for those, please deposit into the complementary AquaDocs.

2. Citation of OBPS Repository
To cite the OBPS repository, the citation is as follows:
Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). [Website]. Available: https://www.oceanbestpractices.org/ (Accessed date.)
For citing individual records in the OBPS Repository, please use the citation for the document as provided in the OBPS record display.

3.  Disclaimer
By consulting, depositing and/or downloading data from the OBPS Repository, the user understands the following: Inclusion of a methodology in the OBPS does not indicate that the methodology is recommended by OBPS. OBPS annotates records as an Endorsed Practice https://doi.org/10.25607/OBP-1983 The information, data, statements, geographical boundaries, maps and declarations expressed in documents and objects in the OBPS repository do not imply the official endorsement or acceptance by UNESCO/IOC. UNESCO/IOC does not warrant that the information, documents and materials contained in the OBPS repository and OBPS website is complete and correct and shall not be liable whatsoever for any damages incurred as a result of its use. Contributors to this repository are solely responsible for the contents of their uploaded documents. Mention of a commercial company or product within this repository content does not constitute an endorsement by UNESCO/IOC Use of information from this repository for publicity or advertising purposes concerning proprietary products or the tests of such products is not authorized.

4. Content Scope
The Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS) Repository is a global open access resource, serving the needs of a broad range of ocean stakeholders. It accepts ocean sciences and services methodological documents (provided they comply with OBPS subject and method criteria) at various levels of development, adoption and maturity; not all are ‘best’ practices’, This permits new practices to be published, tested, and used. It also enables practices tailored for a regional application to be accessible to interested users. The OBPS also, working within the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and externally, reviews practices and methods and identifies those that expert groups may ‘endorse’ as common and accepted operating practices and methods. Sections 4.1 and 4.2 define the attributes of subject and method that are appropriate for a document to be deposited into the OBPS Repository. The OBPS Repository Team, in consultation with experts in the respective fields, has the responsibility to accept, or reject, any submission not deemed to be within the subject or method scope of the repository.

4.1 Subject Criteria
The global scope for the Ocean Best Practices System Repository extends from the deep waters to the surface of the open ocean, the air-sea interface and atmospheric processes relevant to air-sea interactions, to coastal, estuarine, brackish, and freshwater environments. The OBPS Repository subject content covers all ocean science related disciplines; in topics and practices which impact knowledge of the oceans and that the ocean may impact; and other topics applicable to marine, coastal, or other related science, technology, and services. The repository includes topics relevant to and consistent with the scope and goals of the international community as represented and implemented by the IOC Mission, and IOC High Level Objectives, and consistent with United Nations principles and guidelines.

IOC Mission
The purpose of the IOC is to promote international cooperation and to coordinate programmes in research, services and capacity-building, in order to learn more about the nature and resources of the ocean and coastal areas and to apply that knowledge for the improvement of management, sustainable development, the protection of the marine environment, and decision-making processes of its Member States (IOC Statutes, Article 2.1).

IOC High Level Objectives
The IOC is working to achieve its Vision through the following High-Level Objectives:
- Healthy ocean and sustained ocean ecosystem services;
- Effective warning systems and preparedness for tsunamis and other ocean-related hazards;
- Resilience to climate change and contribution to its mitigation; 
- Scientifically-founded services for the sustainable ocean economy;
- Foresight on emerging ocean science issues

4.2 Method Criteria
Deposits should be made on the understanding that the content is a contribution to the methodological base of the ocean community and complies with global conventions and international agreements (specifically, the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea and other Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs).

The focus of the content should be methodologies applied in ocean-related sciences and applications (see Subject Criteria)

Methodologies should support global and regional interoperability across the ocean information value chain from requirement setting, through observations to data management and ultimately to the end user applications and societal impacts.

To be acceptable as a deposit to be included in the OBPS Repository, the proposed document content must comply with the OBPS subject criteria above and meet at least five of the eight elements shown below across the three categories, and include at least one element from each category for the practice or method it covers.

1.  Purpose and Objective:

• Does the document outline a specific practice or method?
• Does the document clearly define what it covers?
• Is a particular objective for the practice defined?
• Does it indicate any limitations in obtaining the objective?
• Is there evidence by the creators or document authors that there is potential for use by others?

2.  Structured Steps or Instructions

• Are there clear steps provided, or a well-defined and described process?
• Does the document include explanations for the process steps in the method?

3. Tools and Techniques

• Does the document specify any tools, equipment, instruments, reagents, documents (such as guides, keys, or references documenting a scientific, engineering or technical basis),or software required?

The OBPS recognizes that repository users looking for practices and methods to adopt in their own settings, are interested in the maturity and quality of a method (maturity of a method is the measure of the level of development). The OBPS does not recommend methods but does record a method as ENDORSED https://doi.org/10.25607/OBP-1983

The OBPS offers document templates for supporting the creation of ocean practices, and the process itself is well described in Fig. 2 in Przesławski, et al, 2023. Importantly, the practice title and abstract and methods body text should describe its methods focus.

5. Language
Methods published in multiple languages that are compliant with the above scopings, are accepted into the repository provided that in the metadata submitted they have an English title and abstract (and preferably in the document itself)

6. Depositors

• Items may only be deposited by users registered in the OBPS repository.
• The validity and authenticity of the full text content of submissions is the sole responsibility of the author/s.
• Authors or their agents will be responsible for ensuring the documents they archive do not have any restrictions on their electronic distribution.
• If the submission task is delegated to other persons (e.g. the librarian), then the institute must ensure they have the requisite authority.
• The OBPS Repository Editorial Team has the responsibility to reject deposits containing incomplete metadata or metadata only without a full text deposit upload.
• Duplication of documents in different open access repositories is permitted.

6.1. Document types
Methodologies can be published digitally as the following: document types:
Book/Monograph: A book or a conference volume or complete serial issue.
Book Section: A chapter or section in a book, monograph or conference volume.
Journal Contribution: A contribution to a journal
Report: This may be a technical report, project report, documentation, manual or guideline, working paper, discussion paper. Report Section: A chapter or section in a report.
Software: Computer programs and applications.
Video/Image : A static image or recording of moving visual images made digitally.
Web Based Content: Usually a website/webpage. If a document is hosted on a website, use the appropriate document type for the item and include the website URL in the Resource URL metadata field.
Other: Something within the scope of the repository, but not covered by the other categories.

At metadata input, selecting one of the above document types will present the depositor with the metadata fields to complete  only for that document type;   for example,  journal contribution metadata is not displayed to input for a report deposit. COMPLETION OF ALL METADATA FIELDS is highly recommended to facilitate discovery of the method.

8. Copyright

• Only items complying with copyright conditions or permission to use license (e.g. Creative Commons) should be deposited.
• Any copyright violations are entirely the responsibility of the authors.
• If the OBPS Repository receives proof of copyright violation, the relevant item will be removed immediately.
• Acceptable reasons for the repository to withdraw the record and full text include: Journal publishers' rules Proven copyright violation or plagiarism Legal requirements and proven violations National security Falsified research
• Withdrawn items are deleted entirely from the database and the creator notified.
• Metadata of the withdrawn item will not be searchable, If necessary, an updated acceptable version may be deposited.
•     Journal publishers' rules
•     Proven copyright violation or plagiarism
•     Legal requirements and proven violations
•     National security
•     Falsified research
• Withdrawn items are deleted entirely from the database and the creator notified.   Metadata of the withdrawn item  will not be  searchable,
• If necessary, an updated acceptable version may be deposited.

9. Metadata standards
The repository uses the well-established metadata standard Qualified Dublin Core and makes use of widely adopted controlled thesauri and other terminological resources.

10. Metadata policy
Third parties may collect metadata from the OBPS Repository via automated mechanisms and facilitate end-user services to support the dissemination and retrieval of the repository’s content. It is the policy of the OBPS to allow the harvesting of metadata, but to explicitly prohibit the automated harvesting of the full text content of the intellectual works in the OBPS repository.

11. Preservation
The Preservation policy for OBPS Repository documents:

• All materials posted in the OBPS repository will be retrievable but it is strongly recommended authors use PDF/a. [PDF/a is an ISO-standardized version of the Portable Document Format specialized for use in the archiving and long-term preservation of electronic documents. PDF/a differs from PDF by prohibiting features unsuitable for long-term archiving, such as font linking and encryption.]
• OBPS repository will try to ensure continued accessibility.
• ‘Supported’ in Section 7.1, means that the OBPS repository will make the file usable in the future, applying whatever combination of techniques (such as migration, emulation, etc.) as is appropriate, given the context of need. Not all proprietary formats can be supported. These files will still be preserved. It is likely that for extremely popular but proprietary formats (such as Microsoft .docx, .xls and .ppt), OBPS repository will be able to help make files in those formats viewable in the future. Items will be retained indefinitely.
• OBPS repository regularly backs up its files according to current best practice.
• Items may be removed as in Section 8 above; for any other reason this is strongly discouraged.
• In the event that the OBPS repository is closed down, the database will be transferred to another appropriate archive.