U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2020-3041

September 2020

Science Synthesis, Analysis, and Research Program

USGS Enterprise Tools for Efficient and Effective Management of Science Data

The Science Data Management Branch (SDM) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provides data management expertise and leadership and 

develops guidance and tools to support the USGS in providing the nation with reliable scientific information on the basis of which to describe 

the Earth. The SDM suite of tools supports the USGS Data Management Lifecycle by facilitating quality assurance, description, curation, and 

publishing of the Bureau's scientific data. The SDM suite of tools includes the USGS Data Management Website, USGS Science Data Catalog, 

Digital Object Identifier Tool, ScienceBase, ScienceBase Data Release Tool, Metadata Wizard, and Online Metadata Editor.

Introduction

The Science Data Management 

Branch (SDM) of the U.S. Geological 

Survey (USGS) provides data management expertise and leadership and develops guidance and tools to support the 

USGS in providing the nation with reliable scientific information to describe and 

understand the Earth. SDM is part of the 

Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) 

organization in the USGS Core Science 

Systems Mission Area. SDM works to 

facilitate and implement each stage of 

the USGS Data Lifecycle (Faundeen and 

others, 2013) (fig. 1). SDM also adds 

value by enabling science data reuse and 

integration and assists scientists in adhering to the expectations of both the USGS 

Fundamental Science Practices (FSP) 

(USGS, 2006), and the USGS Public 

Access Plan (USGS, 2016). 

The USGS has long recognized and 

followed a commitment to data management best practices that are key to producing quality scientific data and making 

them available to the public. Multiple 

broad Federal Government policies 

specific to open, accessible, and discoverable scientific data (Holdren, 2013), 

coupled with a global emphasis on FAIR 

(Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and 

Reusable) data principles (Wilkinson and 

others, 2016), reinforce a need for enterprise Bureau applications such as those 

described in this fact sheet.

Enterprise Tools to Manage 

Scientific Data in USGS

The SDM’s suite of tools facilitates 

quality assurance, description, curation, 

and publishing of the Bureau's scientific 

data. Each tool relates directly to components of the USGS Data Lifecycle and is 

flexible enough to accommodate various 

data management workflows. The tools 

include the USGS Data Management 

Website, USGS Science Data Catalog, 

Digital Object Identifier Tool, ScienceBase, 

ScienceBase Data Release Tool, Metadata 

Wizard, and Online Metadata Editor. 

SDM designed these tools to be connected 

by Application Programming Interfaces 

(APIs), and thus to create more efficient 

workflows. The SDM tool suite can also 

facilitate data usage and citation tracking as 

one measure of the effects of the data in the 

scientific community.

USGS Data Management 

Website

The USGS Data Management Website 

(https://www.usgs.gov/products/data-andtools/data-management) (fig. 2) introduces 

users to data management concepts and 

provides guidance regarding best practices 

and tools for each stage of the USGS Data 

Lifecycle. The Data Lifecycle (fig. 1) 

serves as the organizational framework 

for the Website’s content. The Website 

also provides information that helps 

researchers meet the data management 

requirements of FSP. In 2013, the Website 

was awarded the USGS Shoemaker 

Award for Communications Excellence, 

the USGS’s most prestigious award for 

communications.

Figure 2. USGS Data Management website home page.

Figure 1. USGS Data Lifecycle. The USGS Data Lifecycle aligns data-management activities 

with project workflows and guides proper data management.

Describe (metadata, documentation)

Manage quality

Backup and secure

Plan Acquire Process Analyze Preserve Publish/Share
USGS Science Data Catalog

(SDC)

The USGS Science Data Catalog 

(SDC) (https://data.usgs.gov/ datacatalog) 

(fig. 3) is a comprehensive metadata 

catalog that facilitates discovery of and 

access to USGS research and monitoring data. Users can use SDC to interact 

with thousands of publicly accessible 

USGS scientific data records by using 

text search and browse features or 

a map interface. SDC automatically 

harvests structured metadata from 

ScienceBase and other USGS webaccessible locations and publishes this 

content in other catalogs, including 

the Department of the Interior Catalog 

(https://data.doi.gov/ dataset) and data.gov

(https://www.data.gov), for broader distribution. SDC also serves as a reporting 

mechanism for the USGS to the Office of 

Management and Budget, a requirement 

of the USGS Public Access Plan. As of 

April 2020, the catalog included more 

than 21,000 metadata records describing 

published USGS data assets.

USGS Digital Object Identifier

Tool

The USGS Digital Object Identifier 

(DOI) Tool (https://www1.usgs.gov/ csas/ 

doi/ #/) (fig. 4) allows USGS personnel to 

generate globally unique, persistent, and 

resolvable digital object identi-fiers 

(DOIs) for their online scientific 

products. DOIs provide a permanent 

Universal Resource Locator (URL) to the 

data while allowing the actual physical 

path to the online product to be updated 

by the data owners over time as files 

move to new server locations. When 

managed appropriately, DOIs help ensure 

continuous access to the data over time 

and facilitate product usage and citation 

tracking after release. To the public, DOIs 

are an important mechanism for persistently locating scientific data for understanding and potential reuse. 

DOIs are reserved by interacting

directly with the DOI Tool’s user interface or programmatically through the

API. Following USGS FSP, DOIs can

be assigned to products prior to formal

release. Once all approvals are final, the

DOI is made public and published to

DataCite (https://datacite.org/), a global

non-profit organization that provides a

registry and handle service for research

data DOIs.

ScienceBase

ScienceBase 

(https://www.sciencebase.gov/

catalog/) (fig. 5) is a USGS Trusted

Digital Repository (USGS, 2020) and a

primary host location in which Bureau

scientists can store and publish data.

ScienceBase is developed and maintained

by SDM and provides a collaborative data

management platform on which scientists

and data stewards can document, organize,

preserve, and publish scientific data products and other science-related resources.

ScienceBase provides well-organized 

documented datasets and scientific information through a browser, web services, 

and an API, adding value to digital science 

data. ScienceBase facilitates data management workflows by providing direct 

connections and transfer of information 

among other USGS systems and tools, 

such as the USGS Science Data Catalog 

(described above). Since 2015, SDM has 

continued to refine standard operating procedures for releasing USGS data products 

through ScienceBase and helps USGS 

researchers comply with the FSP policies 

(USGS, 2017). This process, initiated 

through the ScienceBase Data Release 

(SBDR) Tool, optimizes the sequence of 

actions needed to complete a USGS data 

release. ScienceBase also supports tools 

and workflows of other groups, providing them with efficient web-based search 

functions and machine accessibility.

ScienceBase Data Release Tool 

(SBDR)

The SBDR Tool (fig. 6) streamlines the formal USGS data release 

process in ScienceBase. SBDR is a web 

application that creates an individual 

ScienceBase landing page for each data 

release in the repository. Additionally, 

SBDR reserves a DOI for each release 

by seamlessly accessing the DOI Tool. 

Similarly, through a connection with the 

USGS Information Product Tracking 

Figure 3. USGS Science Data Catalog home page. System, an internal review and approval 

Figure 4. USGS Digital Object Identifier Tool home page.
tracking application, SBDR automatically 

reduces data entry by retrieving existing 

information about a data release. SBDR 

can be configured to notify specified 

data managers that a new data release 

has been initiated. The SDM team can 

also configure the SBDR for each USGS 

Science Center by allowing in-house 

data managers to control permissions to 

read and edit repository landing pages, 

manage the associated DOI(s), and notify 

the appropriate staff of newly initiated 

data releases. SBDR can also identify 

metadata records for automatic transmission to the SDC upon final approval 

of a data release and offer detailed 

metrics on the number of data releases 

produced by a USGS Science Center or 

individual author.

Metadata Wizard 2.0

The USGS Metadata Wizard (fig. 7) 

simplifies metadata creation by extracting 

information directly from geospatial datasets where possible, such as coordinate reference info, spatial extent, feature counts, 

entity and attribute information, and a 

jargon-free interface to collect other relevant information about the data. Metadata 

Wizard was originally designed for direct 

integration with ArcGIS Desktop to help 

users create Federal Geographic Data 

Committee (FGDC) Content Standard for 

Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) 

compliant metadata. The redesigned 

Metadata Wizard 2.0 offers continued 

support for ArcGIS users, but also can 

be run as a stand-alone desktop application, compatible with both Macintosh 

and Windows operating systems. The 

Metadata Wizard can be integrated with 

several data management tools that help 

users complete their metadata records. 

Tools include the USGS Metadata Parser 

(https://mrdata.usgs.gov/validation/) to 

validate metadata structure; USGS Thesaurus 

(https://www2.usgs.gov/science/about/), a 

controlled vocabulary of keywords named 

the Integrated Taxonomic Information 

System (ITIS) (https://www.itis.gov/) – 

an authoritative biological taxonomic 

reference; and DataCite and CrossRef 

(https://www.crossref.org/) – sources 

of bibliographic information for related 

publications. USGS-employee contact 

information can also be easily pulled 

into the tool. Metadata Wizard can also 

Figure 5. USGS ScienceBase home page.

Figure 6. ScienceBase data release tool.
connect directly to an Extensible Markup 

Language (XML) metadata file associated with a landing page in ScienceBase 

that allows data managers to directly 

edit existing metadata files. Metadata 

Wizard 2.0 is bundled with a version of 

Anaconda (https://www.anaconda.com), a 

data science platform, which provides data 

managers a simplified way to begin batchprocessing of metadata files and complete other data management tasks with 

the programming language Python (TM) 

(https://www.python.org) and the opensource code sharing applications, Jupyter 

Notebooks (TM) (https://jupyter.org/). 

Metadata Wizard and Metadata Wizard 2.0 

were designed and built in collaboration 

between the SAS SDM Branch and the 

USGS Fort Collins Science Center.

Online Metadata Editor (OME)

The Online Metadata Editor (OME) 

(fig. 8) is a web application to help USGS 

scientists describe their data or product by 

asking simple, jargon-free questions. OME 

generates a FGDC CSDGM-compliant 

record (FGDC, 2020) in XML, a standard 

metadata-record format commonly used 

by the USGS. Users can log in to OME 

and create new metadata records or upload 

and edit existing records, view a list of all 

the metadata records they have created 

or uploaded in the past, and save partial 

metadata records to complete later. OME 

is connected to other USGS tools, such as 

ITIS, USGS Metadata Parser, DOI Tool, 

and an internal USGS Employee Directory 

to aid in metadata description and production. Metadata records created by using 

OME can populate a ScienceBase repository page for a data release and can also be 

submitted to the USGS SDC.

References Cited

Faundeen, J.L., Burley, T.E., Carlino, J.A., 

Govoni, D.L., Henkel, H.S., Holl, S.L., 

Hutchison, V.B., Martín, E., Montgomery, 

E.T., Ladino, C.C., Tessler, S., and Zolly, L.S., 

2013, The United States Geological Survey 

 Science Data Lifecycle Model: U.S. 

Geological Survey Open-File Report 

2013–1265, 4 p., accessed February 6, 2020 

at https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20131265.

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), 

2020, Content Standard for Digital Geospatial 

Metadata (CSDGM), Ver. 2 (FGDC–

STD–0011998), accessed February 7, 

2020, at https://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/

csdgm-standard.

Holdren, J.P., 2013, Memorandum for the heads 

of executive departments and agencies—

Increasing access to the results of federally 

funded scientific research: Executive 

Office of the President, Office of Science 

and Technology Policy (February 22, 

2013), 6 p., accessed February 6, 2020 at 

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/

default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_

access_memo_2013.pdf.

U.S. Geological Survey [USGS], 2006, 

Fundamental Science Practices 

(FSP): accessed January 16, 2020, at 

https://www.usgs.gov/about/organization/

science-support/science-quality-and-integrity/

fundamental-science-practices.

U.S. Geological Survey [USGS], 2017, 502.8—

Fundamental Science Practices—Review and 

approval of scientific data for release: U.S. 

Geological Survey, accessed January 16, 

2019, at https://www.usgs.gov/about/organization/science-support/survey-manual/5028-

fundamental-science-practices-review-and.

U.S. Geological Survey [USGS], 2020— USGS 

Trusted Digital Repositories (TDR), accessed 

February 7, 2020, at https://www.usgs.gov/

about/organization/science-support/officescience-quality-and-integrity/trusted-digitalrepository.

U.S. Geological Survey [USGS], 2016, 

Public access to results of federally 

funded research at the U.S. Geological 

Survey—Scholarly publications and 

digital data: U.S. Geological Survey, 

accessed January 8, 2016, at https://prdwret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/

palladium/production/atoms/files/USGSPublicAccessPlan-APPROVED-v1-03.pdf.

Wilkinson, M., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, I., 

and others, 2016, The FAIR guiding principles 

for scientific data management and stewardship: Scientific Data v. 3, no. 160018, 9 p., 

accessed February 12, 2020 at https://doi.org/

10.1038/sdata.2016.18.

Figure 8. Online Metadata Editor home page.

ISSN 2327-6932 (online) https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20203041

By Vivian B. Hutchison, Amanda 

Liford, Ricardo McClees-Funinan, Lisa Zolly, 

Drew Ignizio, Madison Langseth, Brandon Serna, 

Elizabeth Sellers, Leslie Hsu, Tamar Norkin, 

Marcia McNiff, and Grace Donovan

For more information contact Vivian 

Hutchison, Branch Chief, USGS SAS Science 

Data Management (vhutchison@usgs.gov)

Figure 7. Metadata Wizard 2.0 home page.