Our Mission

Rationale

Geochemical data have applications in many disciplines including geology, cosmology, environment, resources (groundwater, minerals, energy), geohealth, ocean and agriculture. As such, geochemical data play an important role in at least six of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. To support these disciplines and goals, there is a growing need to provide advice and support the implementation of data quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) validation methods for laboratories, repositories, publishers and policy makers. When provenance, methodology and a measure of data quality are consistently documented others will be enabled to trust, interpret and reuse data. In enabling and simplifying the (re)use of geochemical data, OneGeochemistry will help to facilitate acceleration of the generation of new geoscientific knowledge and discoveries.

As OneGeochemistry organises collaboration and coordination of data reporting standardisation efforts that are non-unique across the diverse geochemistry communities, this initiative fills a niche previously unoccupied. Standardisation efforts have always focused on national, programmatic or less centralised levels. The formalisation of OneGeochemistry and endorsement by societies and associations will enable the initiative to develop and promote influential, community-driven data conventions and best practices necessary to build a global network of high-quality, trusted geochemical data. These actions will enable FAIRer geochemical data, simplifying data (re)use which will both contribute to many UN Sustainable Development goals and accelerate the generation of new geoscientific knowledge and discoveries.

Starting OneGeochemistry

As of December 2022, the OneGeochemistry initiative is acting as the OneGeochemistry CODATA Working Group under the International Science Council to bring together the disparate geochemistry initiatives across Scientific Unions, Associations, Societies and Commissions. Over two years, this Working Group will be utilised to recruit a larger membership base to the initiative that will then be able to vote on a long-term governance structure for OneGeochemistry. The OneGeochemistry initiative invites you, other researchers, data groups and initiatives to help make the OneGeochemistry vision come true, by making geochemical data more standardised and interoperable between institutions and nations creating a global network of geochemical data resources. For more information please visit the Participate section.

OneGeochemistry seeks to create a global geochemical data network that facilitates and promotes discovery of, and access to, geochemical data through coordination and collaboration among international geochemical data providers by:

The proposed structure for OneGeochemistry; where it receives input for standards and best practices from various stakeholders working with geochemical data. Expert committees within OneGeochemistry formally check and accept these with goal to making them available in machine actionable formats as well as publications in the IUPAC brown book and on the OneGeochemistry webpage as recommendations for the various stakeholders to be implemented.

  • Developing internationally endorsed best practices for FAIR geochemical data.
  • Defining requirements for data documentation (method, samples, data quality, etc.).
  • Developing and implement interoperability standards for geochemical data to enable machine-to-machine exchange and integration of geochemical data.
  • Aligning with modern technology, e.g. semantic web standards.
  • Using, where possible, internationally endorsed vocabularies.

Team

Secretary & Coordinator:
Alexander Prent

Interim Board Members:
Kerstin Lehnert, Columbia University, representing the Astromaterials Data System,
Marthe Klöcking, University of Göttingen, representing DIGIS for GEOROC 2.0
Kirsten Elger, German Research Centre for Geosciences, representing GFZ Data Services and EPOS Multi-Scale Laboratories
Lesley Wyborn, Australian National University, AuScope Virtual Research Environments
Dominik Hezel, Goethe University Frankfurt, representing NFDI4Earth and MetBase
Lucia Profeta, Columbia University, representing EarthChem
Angus Nixon, University of Adelaide, representing the AuScope Geochemistry Network

The Briefest History of Geochemistry

By Lesley Wyborn

Geochemistry emerged as a discipline in its own right around 1838 and since then, acquisition and analysis of geochemical data have become pervasive. Initially geochemical data was acquired using manual ‘wet chemical’ techniques and only major elements and a few trace elements were routinely recorded. Results were reported in typeset tables in publications, and a publication rarely contained data on more than 15 samples. For the first 120 years little changed, but by the 1960’s a technological revolution began to take place in geochemistry: analytical systems became more automated and microanalytical in-situ techniques were progressively developed. The volumes of data generated increased rapidly and the diversity of elements and isotopes analysed soon covered the periodic table: the data tsunami began. As more and more automated techniques became available, it became very difficult to share all geochemical data through tables in paper publications, and data was reported in supplementary papers that could only be retrieved through direct contact with the author: the data were no longer part of the publication and were easily and often lost. However, as analytical technologies advanced, technologies to store and curate geochemical data over the long term did not keep up with these developments. Even with the emergence of the internet, the global geochemical community was unable to organise data in a way that it could be digitally curated, shared and even repurposed for new use cases. In the last 30 years major databases that store geochemical data emerged, and although many did not survive, EarthChem and GEOROC have been sustained over decades and continue to provide valuable online, published geochemical datasets and showcase the potential of harnessing data into authoritative sources to generate new scientific discoveries. Today, the Internet can connect multiple globally distributed databases in real-time. We now urgently need to focus on creating the digital standards and agreeing on best practices that will make any online geochemistry dataset Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) by both humans and machines. The recently formed OneGeochemistry CODATA Working Group is seeking to both harness and harmonise existing groups working towards global data sharing and promulgate best practices and standards.

OneGeochemistry Articles & Documents

The OneGeochemistry team has published a number of articles to define the goals of this initiative and its ongoing development.
Additional documentation and technical papers are archived in our Zenodo community.

As a long-tail scientific discipline with highly specific and heterogeneous analytical methods, the geochemistry community faces challenges in achieving FAIR data compliance. While many repositories satisfy the Findable and Accessible principles of FAIR, increased modernisation of existing standards and development of additional data standards are required to achieve Interoperability and Reusability of data.
This third deliverable of the WorldFAIR Geochemistry Work Package (WP05) aims to guide the geochemistry data infrastructure community towards convergence by identifying FAIR Enabling Resources (FERs) that are currently being used by the geosciences community. Promulgation of used resources and their uptake by other infrastructure providers is part of the push towards convergence. The WorldFAIR Geochemistry Work Package proposes creating a reference FIP or catalogue of FERs to promote interoperability and prevent duplication of efforts. The geochemistry reference FIP is designed as a living document, allowing continual updates by the community. It serves as a tool for laboratories, repositories, and infrastructure providers to enhance data FAIRness. Through the provision of a reference FAIR Implementation Profile (FIP) or catalogue of FERs as part of this report, data providers and producers are provided with a tool to help select FERs when building or updating their infrastructure to become more FAIR.
Together with the second deliverable (D5.2) of the WorldFAIR Geochemistry Work Package which outlined the usefulness and importance of FIPs, this report and the associated reference FIP can be used by the geochemistry community - particularly by data creators and providers - to improve their FAIRness. We recommend that new and emerging geochemistry data producers and providers consult the geochemistry reference FIP and ideally choose to implement existing FERs, although the selection and implementation of FERs should align with the principles and community needs that the specific data system serves.
The goal is to facilitate the implementation of commonly-used FERs, and so improving data FAIRness, with a resource that fosters interoperability, accelerates convergence on data standards, and ultimately enhances the accessibility and reusability of geochemical data. This report and the reference FIP aim to encourage the reuse of available resources, prevent duplication, and enhance convergence on data standards within the geochemistry community. Community collaboration, the continuous evolution of the living reference FIP document to support FAIR compliance and convergence towards standardisation are needed to continue improving FAIRness in the geochemistry data community.

Prent, A., Farrington, R., Wyborn, L., Nixon, A., Elger, K., Klöcking, M., Hezel, D., & Lehnert, K. (2024). WorldFAIR (D5.3) Guidelines for implementing Geochemistry FIPs (Version 1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10712808

Together with the earlier WorldFAIR Milestone 6, this D5.2 report focuses on advocating the utility and significance of FAIR Implementation Profiles (FIPs) for the geochemistry community, culminating in presenting a set of policy and organisational recommendations. The primary goal of this report is to foster alignment across the complex and heterogeneous geochemistry community, in producing and integrating FAIR data for the huge diversity of sample types and target analytes of this community, each often having numerous analytical methods. This document presents various ways in which the community can increase FAIRness through the publication of FERs for different levels of data granularity and FAIR community size and complexity (Figure 2). Additionally, interoperability of data between methodologies is suggested to be overcome through data abstraction (Box 1).
Following the FIP methodology, this D5.2 report makes reference to the fifteen FAIR Principles, divided into scientific and technical components. Scientific component implementations, and related community engagement, are to be based on best practice publications that outline data reporting and methodology descriptions from within specific geochemistry sub-disciplines. Parts of these publications, including tables and images in PDF or document formats, could be converted into machine actionable FAIR-enabling resources (FERs), and be part of a generic FIP for geochemistry. Technical components need to be generated, reviewed and assessed by geochemistry data infrastructure and repository technical staff, along with the development of additionally needed FERs in consultation with other FAIR data management expert groups (e.g., CODATA-DDI Alliance activity, the DDI-CDI group, the RDA Vocabulary Services Interest Group, IUPAC, etc.) and the “Ten Simple Rules for making a vocabulary FAIR” (Cox et al. 2021).
This report is the result of interactions with the geochemistry community through the OneGeochemistry Initiative, its board members, research infrastructure experts, analytical facilities and international leaders in geochemistry data management systems (EarthChem, DIGIS-GEOROC, AGN–AusGeochem, GFZ Data Services, NFDI4Earth, and EPOS MSL Laboratories).

Prent, A., Wyborn, L., & Farrington, R. (2024). WorldFAIR (D5.2) Geochemistry Methodology and Outreach (Version 1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10406332

WorldFAIR Milestone 6, reported here, specifies work done and being undertaken for Deliverable 5.2 (due month 20), ‘Geochemistry Methodology and Outreach’, which has the following description: “This deliverable will outline the methodology used to develop and update FIPs and promulgate knowledge of them, including publishers to ensure the quality, interoperability and reusability of data in publications”.
As geochemical data is collected on a diversity of natural and synthetic samples (rocks, sediments, minerals, fossils, meteorites, cosmic dust, fluids, gases, etc), from the Earth or other planetary bodies, there is an incredible range of analytical instruments used and hundreds of analytical techniques applied. This results in a community with many subdisciplines that produce typically ‘long tail’ data - data that are highly specific and small in volume. The community and the data produced are heterogeneous and overlaps of common minimum variables are scarce.
We conclude that developing a single FAIR Implementation Profile (FIP) for all geochemical data will not be possible; rather, there will need to be multiple linked FIPs for geochemistry subdisciplines and at multiple levels of granularity. As a FIP is underpinned by FAIR Enabling Resources (FERs), many such FERs need to be publicly available or need to be published. By specifying any FER(s) that accompany each FAIR principle within the individual FIP, users of any geochemical dataset/database will have accurate documentation for each FAIR Principles, and thus enhance machine readability.
This Milestone describes progress towards developing a methodology designed to assist in defining the individual FERs required to fully describe the minimum scientific and technical variables used to describe any geochemical analysis. These FERs will enable the generation of multiple FIPs, facilitating published results to be reproduced and shared globally with sufficient metadata to make any geochemical resource FAIR for both humans and machines.
This Milestone report then discusses how the components of this methodology are being executed in the community, discusses resulting progress towards minimum common variables of samples, discusses how to make best practices for geochemical methods available online and specifies a set of vocabularies published to describe methodologies.

Prent, A., Wyborn, L., Farrington, R., Lehnert, K., Klöcking, M., Elger, K., Hezel, D., ter Maat, G., Profeta, L., & Rawling, T. (2023). WorldFAIR Project (MS6) Geochemistry Scientific Content Component (Version 1.1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7977116

Prent A.M., Hezel D.C., Klöcking M., Wyborn L., Farrington R., Lehnert K., Elger K., Profeta L., 2023. Innovating and networking global geochemical data resources through OneGeochemistry. Elements 19(3), 136–137. https://doi.org/10.2138/gselements.19.3.136

The majority of geochemical and cosmochemical research is based upon observations and, in particular, upon the acquisition, processing and interpretation of analytical data from physical samples. The exponential increase in volumes and rates of data acquisition over the last century, combined with advances in instruments, analytical methods and an increasing variety of data types analysed, has necessitated the development of new ways of data curation, access and sharing. Together with novel data processing methods, these changes have enabled new scientific insights and are driving innovation in Earth and Planetary Science research. Yet, as approaches to data-intensive research develop and evolve, new challenges emerge. As large and often global data compilations increasingly form the basis for new research studies, institutional and methodological differences in data reporting are proving to be significant hurdles in synthesising data from multiple sources. Consistent data formats and data acquisition descriptions are becoming crucial to enable quality assessment, reusability and integration of results fostering confidence in available data for reuse. Here, we explore the key challenges faced by the geo- and cosmochemistry community and, by drawing comparisons from other communities, recommend possible approaches to overcome them. The first challenge is bringing together the numerous sub-disciplines within our community under a common international initiative. One key factor for this convergence is gaining endorsement from the international geochemical, cosmochemical and analytical societies and associations, journals and institutions. Increased education and outreach, spearheaded by ambassadors recruited from leading scientists across disciplines, will further contribute to raising awareness, and to uniting and mobilising the community. Appropriate incentives, recognition and credit for good data management as well as an improved, user-oriented technical infrastructure will be essential for achieving a cultural change towards an environment in which the effective use and real-time interchange of large datasets is common-place. Finally, the development of best practices for standardised data reporting and exchange, driven by expert committees, will be a crucial step towards making geo- and cosmochemical data more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable by both humans and machines (FAIR).

Klöcking M, Wyborn L, Lehnert KA, Ware B, Prent AM, Profeta L, Kohlmann F, Noble W, Bruno I, Lambart S, Ananuer H, Barber ND, Becker H, Brodbeck M, Deng H, Deng K, Elger K, Franco GdS, Gao Y, Ghasera KM, Hezel DC, Huang J, Kerswell B, Koch H, Lanati AW, Maat Gt, Martínez-Villegas N, Yobo LN, Redaa A, Schäfer W, Swing MR, Taylor RJM, Traun MK, Whelan J, Zhou T., 2023. Community recommendations for geochemical data, services and analytical capabilities in the 21st century. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2023.04.024

Report on the formalisation of the OneGeochemistry CODATA Working Group. Project Deliverable D5.1 for EC WIDERA-funded project “WorldFAIR: Global cooperation on FAIR data policy and practice”.
The WorldFAIR Geochemistry Work Package Deliverable 5.1 sets out to formalise the OneGeochemistry Initiative. With the exponential growth of data volumes and production, better coordination and collaboration is needed within the Earth and Planetary Science community producing geochemical data. The mission of OneGeochemistry is to address this need and in order to do so effectively the OneGeochemistry Interim Board has applied to become the OneGeochemistry CODATA Working Group. This application has been approved by the CODATA Executive Committee. The OneGeochemistry CODATA Working Group will be led by a chair and co-chair and will form expert advisory groups where required. Becoming a CODATA Working Group gives the OneGeochemistry Initiative credibility and authority to successfully pursue a long-term governance structure and accomplish the other WorldFAIR deliverables of WP05 (Geochemistry).
Accomplishing an outline of the methodology used to populate and update FAIR Implementation Profiles and to promulgate knowledge of them, as well as creating a set of guidelines for laboratories and repositories on how to use FAIR Implementation Profiles and common variables to QA/QC data, will enable FAIRer (Wilkinson et al., 2016) geochemical data, which will in turn make interdisciplinary use easier.
Geochemical data has direct application to six of the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG#6 (Clean Water and Sanitation); SDG#7 (Affordable and Clean Energy); SDG#8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth); SDG#9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure); SDG#13 (Climate Action); SDG#15 (Life on Land) and FAIR geochemical data will accelerate the generation of new geoscientific knowledge and discoveries. Within the greater framework of the WorldFAIR project, this deliverable has come together in collaboration with CODATA (WP01 and WP02) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC, WP03).

Prent, A., & Rawling, T. (2022). WorldFAIR Project (D5.1) Formalisation of OneGeochemistry (Version 1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7380947

OneGeochemistry is an international collaboration between multiple national and international organisations that support geochemistry capability and data production. This document describes the interim governance of OneGeochemistry that will be valid until the network is formally constituted (planned for mid 2024).

Lehnert, Kerstin, Klöcking, Marthe, Elger, Kirsten, Wyborn, Lesley, Prent, Alexander, ter Maat, Geertje, & Hezel, Dominik C., 2022. OneGeochemistry Interim Governance. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6566074

Acknowledgements

Many of the images on these pages come from pixabay.