[1] This technical brief describes a geochemical and petrological database structure based on the relational model that has broad applicability to chemical analyses of geological materials. Notable features of the database structure are its comprehensiveness and flexibility. The structure consists of 34 interrelated tables, which can accommodate any type of analytical values for all different materials of rock samples (volcanic glasses, minerals, inclusions, etc.) and for samples from any tectonic setting. A broad spectrum of supplementary information (metadata) is included that describes the quality of the analytical data and sample characteristics, such as petrography, geographical location, and sampling process, and that can be used to evaluate, filter, and sort the chemical data. All data in the database are linked to their original reference. The database structure can be implemented in any relational database management system (RDBMS). It is currently applied in two different rock database projects (RidgePetDB and GEOROC).

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The initiation of dedicated databases for the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)‐supported Ridge2000 and MARGINS programs provides the opportunity to develop a data management system capable of handling the primary data types of marine geoscience research. Ridge2000 and MARGINS are broad initiatives focused on fundamental problems of crustal creation, evolution, and destruction along the world's tectonic plate boundaries. These programs involve the collection of a wide range of geophysical data types, as well as rock, fluid, and biological samples, and time series data.

Sampling the natural world and built environment underpins much of science, yet systems for managing material samples and associated (meta)data are fragmented across institutional catalogs, practices for identification, and discipline-specific (meta)data standards. The Internet of Samples (iSamples) is a standards-based collaboration to uniquely, consistently, and conveniently identify material samples, record core metadata about them, and link them to other samples, data, and research products. iSamples extends existing resources and best practices in data stewardship to render a cross-domain cyberinfrastructure that enables transdisciplinary research, discovery, and reuse of material samples in 21st century natural science.

The Enabling FAIR Data project has brought together a broad spectrum of Earth, space, and environmental science leaders to ensure that data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

Data experts from publishers, repositories, and other organizations met last month to kick off a project to promote open and Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data principles.