FID GEO: library-based services that help establish Open Science practices.

In the context of Open Science, data are just one, albeit important, part of the chain of scientific outputs, ranging from samples, to data, software, and research articles. The Specialized Information Service for Geosciences FID GEO has adopted this holistic view and considers the areas of text and data publications as two complementary components of Open Science.

Since 2016, FID GEO is offering information and publication services for the geoscientific community and is increasingly acknowledged as a competence center for the transformation of the publication culture in the geosciences. FID GEO’s services focus on electronic publishing of texts and research data, as well as digitization through the participating repositories GEO-LEOe-docs, hosted at the Göttingen State and University library (SUB), and GFZ Data Services, hosted at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, but also a comprehensive consulting portfolio.

FID GEO’s services were developed with the active participation of the geoscience community. The website, social media accounts and our newsletter are tools for actively connecting with the community. Informations on practical aspects of Open Science practices are regularly published in the journal “GMIT – Geowissenschaftliche Mitteilungen”, on the website and partner websites (e.g. forschungsdaten.info). Workshops and talks are successful tools to enable discussions, to address questions or uncertainties directly and to provide the appropriate framework to address specific requirements of individual research groups. FID GEO collaborates with strategic (inter)national initiatives (like NFDI4Earth), with several German Geosciences societies and other library-related projects to ensure the ongoing successful shift towards Open Science practices.