How to improve the legacy value of your dataset

Abstract

Agriculture datasets are an essential source of information at a global level to address the challenge to feed a growing population, from production systems that are sustainable and adapted to changing environmental and climate conditions (Runck et al. 2022). They provide evidence that allows farmers, researchers, industry organisations, commercial businesses and statutory authorities and other stakeholders to make decisions regarding, for example, farm system management, priority areas for investment in scientific research, and policies for managing environmental emissions from agricultural land uses decisions and drive progress in the agricultural sector (Weersink et al. 2018). The effectiveness of datasets for these purposes will be maximised when users have full confidence in the relevance, coverage, quality and accessibility of the data that they draw on (Carolan et al. 2015). Datasets are the evidence base for decision making because data collection and processing aim to reduce uncertainty to allow users to make more knowledgeable decisions (Daft and Lengel 1986). To enhance the reusability of academic and commercial generated data there is a need for a concise and measurable set of principles with specific emphasis to improve the utility of data for individuals (Senft et al. 2022) and of computers to automatically find and use data.