. Version 1.1 of the editorial of Geoscientific Model
Development (GMD), published in 2015 (GMD Executive
Editors, 2015), introduced clarifications to the policy on publication of source code and input data for papers published
in the journal. Three years of working with this policy has
revealed that it is necessary to be more precise in the requirements of the policy and in the narrowness of its exceptions. Furthermore, the previous policy was not specific in
the requirements for suitable archival locations. Best practice in code and data archiving continues to develop and
is far from universal among scientists. This has resulted in
many manuscripts requiring improvement in code and data
availability practice during the peer-review process. New researchers continually start their professional lives, and it remains the case that not all authors fully appreciate why code
and data publication is necessary. This editorial provides an
opportunity to explain this in the context of GMD.
The changes in the code and data policy are summarised
as follows:
– The requirement for authors to publish source code, unless this is impossible for reasons beyond their control,
is clarified. The minimum requirements are strengthened such that all model code must be made accessible during the review process to the editor and to potentially anonymous reviewers. Source code that can be
made public must be made public, and embargoes are
not permitted. Identical requirements exist for input data
and model evaluation data sets in the model experiment
descriptions.
The scope of the code and data required to be published
is described. In accordance with Copernicus’ own data
policy, we now specifically strongly encourage all code
and data used in any analyses be made available. This
will have particular relevance for some model evaluation papers where editors may now strongly request this
material be made available.
– The requirements of suitable archival locations are specified, along with the recommendation that Zenodo is often a good choice.
In addition, since the last editorial, an “Author contributions”
section must now be included in all manuscripts.