The IAI has the mandate to “pursue the principles of scientific excellence, international cooperation, and the full and open exchange of scientific information relevant to global change” (Article II of the Agreement for the Creation of the IAI, 1992). In response to this mandate, the IAI has an Open Access Policy for Data and Publications, updated in 2024.
The objectives of this policy are: 1) To make data produced by IAI-funded research projects findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable; 2) To facilitate compliance with the CARE principles for IAI-funded research involving indigenous peoples and local communities; 3) To promote the publication of the products of IAI activities in open access format; 4) To increase capacities for sharing, using, and reusing open data at the regional level.
To implement this policy, the IAI has an implementation plan and a series of instruments to ensure open access to data and publications. To ensure open access to data and publications produced by IAI-funded activities, the Institute has four thematic collections of data and publications in the Harvard Dataverse. There, databases are deposited and shared, and publications in the following four thematic areas defined by the IAI’s scientific agenda will be included in the future: 1) Human dimensions of global change; 2) Climate variability in the Americas; 3) Ecosystems, biodiversity, and land use; and 4) Atmosphere, oceans, and continental waters.
