The Science Data and Information Governance Framework is an enterprise-wide document that describes the environment, supporting structure and direction for Geoscience Australia to effectively manage its scientific data and information in support of its core business.

Geoscience Australia (GA) is improving its stewardship and sharing of data and information products that are discoverable, freely accessible, interoperable, standardised, authoritative and able to be used by diverse stakeholders. The factors that impact on GA's ability to share its wealth of data and information assets are complex and interdependent but fall into three main areas of strategic focus; ICT, data custodianship and governance. GA has already begun to achieve some important building blocks towards data management including an Information Management Framework and the establishment of Architecture Committees and Scientific Communities of Practice to strengthen the governance of data and information. International, national and community standards are being applied by data custodians to facilitate discovery and access to our data, and to improve the interworkability of the content. New ICT tools and systems are being developed to provide internal and external users with a single entry point to discover, visualise and deliver GA data and products. The long term goal is to implement fully operational channels for the management, discovery and delivery of all GA data including 'BIG' data and 'the long tail of science'. This will entail a long term commitment to culture change, education and data management support.

Part-page item on matters relating to Australian stratigraphy. This column briefly reviews the history of the Australian Stratigraphic Lexicon, and the resources available in its card files and online database ASUD. ISSN 0312 4711

This report provides detailed descriptions (metadata) of 45 Australian marine environmental datasets that have been generated and collated by the Marine Biodiversity Hub as part of Theme 3 - National Ecosystems Knowledge, Project 1 - Shelf and Canyon Ecosystems Functions and Processes. The report also includes a map for each dataset to illustrate coverage and general spatial structure. The datasets contain both marine environmental and biological variables from diverse data sources and include both new and updated information. Among them, the national bathymetry grid and derived products, seabed sediment grids, seabed exposure (GEOMACS) parameters, water quality data, the national canyon dataset and connectivity layers were produced by Geoscience Australia. Other environmental and biological datasets are the outputs of oceanographic models and collections of various governmental and research organisations. These datasets are important for the success of marine biodiversity research in Theme 3 Project 1 in that they describe key aspects of Australian marine physical, geochemical and biological environments. The physical and geochemical datasets not only characterise the static seabed features but also capture the temporal variation and three-dimensional interactions within marine ecosystems. The biological datasets represent a unique collection of fish and megafauna data available at the national scale. Together, these marine environmental datasets enhance our understanding of large-scale ecological processes driving marine biodiversity patterns. However, we should be aware of the uncertainties and potential errors exist in these datasets due to limitations of data collection and processing methods. Data quality issues of individual datasets have been documented in this report where possible.

Discussion of the uses made of the Australian Stratigraphic units database (ASUD), the sources of data to update it, and issues with maintaining quality. The importance of correct and consistent terminology, and the value of good reviews and editing are highlighted with examples.