Data availability principles and practice

The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is moving toward strongly encouraging authors to make all data available, consistent with the “FAIR” principle: “findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.” While we at the Journal of Physical Oceanography (JPO) firmly support this move, we also recognize that sharing all of the data is in some cases not practical or even useful. Your feedback now could help to prevent some of the less desirable possible side effects of this policy. We hope that this editorial will help to prod the discussion of exactly what data should be shared, and in what form (format, metadata, level of quality control, etc.).