About the Global Change Information System
The Global Change Information System (GCIS); a product of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP); is an open-source, web-based resource designed for use by scientists, decision makers, and the public. As a centralized catalog of all materials and data used for USGCRP products and climate assessments; the system acts as an advanced, multifaceted bibliography, maintaining traceable provenance records of scientific information and providing access to the original data and research. The GCIS documents the cross-links among research papers, researchers, original data, and more and includes links back to authoritative sources for its information. In addition, the GCIS guides users to global change research produced by the 15 USGCRP member agencies.
External Standards & Resources
Data Model
GCIS utilizes a structured data model to represent relationships and entities such as reports, report chapters, figures, images, tables, bibliographic entries, organizations and people. Where possible this model makes use of existing standards and conventions, as described below.
Identifiers
GCIS makes use of external identifiers such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), ORCIDs, RORs, ISBNs, ISSNs. ISBN resolution is handled through WorldCat. They may also utilize identifiers created for other aggregator systems, such as Data.gov identifiers. When GCIS must create its own identifier, it may utilize a Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) when no human-readable identifier is reasonable.
Taxonomies
GCIS utilizes NASA GCMD Keywords for the precise search of GCIS metadata. Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keywords are a hierarchical set of controlled Earth Science vocabularies that help ensure Earth science data, services, and variables are described in a consistent and comprehensive manner.
Provenance
GCIS utilizes W3C provenance to represent some relationships inside of GCIS. In particular, GCIS utilizes PROV-O and CiTO verbs.
Technology
GCIS is written in Ruby using the Ruby on Rails web framework, the Active Record Database interface, and it relies on PostgreSQL for data storage.
Map inserts are supported by OpenStreetMap data with MapBox tiles and implementation through LeafletJS.
Data Export Formats
GCIS offers a several of human- and machine-readable data export formats, defaulting with the HTML pages. Publication pages can be downloaded as JSON, YAML, or CSV data. Additionally, the data Array(s) behind Table Publications may be downloaded as CSV. List pages can be downloaded as JSON, YAML, or CSV formatted data.
Team
Bradley Akamine: USGCRP Chief Digital Officer
Amrutha Elamparuthy: GCIS Team Lead
Zachary Landes: Software Engineer
Reuben Aniekwu : Climate Research Specialist
Aaron Grade : NCA Staff Scientist
Shamel Wilson: Data Management Intern
GCIS Version
Version Notes
- Updated Sunburst Diagram
- Completed Provenance Scoring Updates
- Updated Report Dashboard Statistics
Contacting us and contributing
If you're interested in contributing to the development and evolution of the Global Change Information System, please subscribe to our mailing list.
GCIS is also on GitHub, and we welcome contributions to the source code.
If you have other comments, questions, or feedback about the GCIS please use the form below.