AGU Data and Software Sharing Policies in the Era of Open Science: Policy Analysis and Case Study

Under data-intensive and computation-intensive research paradigms, research data and software have become increasingly important scholarly outputs and key components of open science. The American Geophysical Union (AGU), a highly influential publisher in the Earth, space, and environmental sciences, has actively promoted policies and practices for data and software sharing. This study combines policy analysis with journal case studies to examine the evolution, major elements, and journal-level practices of the AGU’s data and software sharing policies. The findings show that the AGU has gradually expanded its policy focus from data sharing to integrated data and software sharing, establishing a policy framework centered on availability statements, data and software citation, and trusted repository recommendations. Evidence from the selected journal samples indicates that data availability statements have become common practice. In the sample, 98.2% of 227 articles from Earth and Space Science (ESS) and 96.4% of 503 articles from the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics (JGR: Space Physics) included data availability statements. In addition, software availability statements and formal citations to data and software have shown increasing visibility over time. The AGU’s policy framework suggests that scholarly publishers can promote data and software sharing by clarifying policy requirements, improving author guidance, standardizing citation practices, and strengthening infrastructure support. These findings provide practical guidance for scholarly publishers, especially Chinese scholarly publishers, to improve open science policies and strengthen the standardization of data and software sharing.