Information Quality in the Assessment

The SOCCR2 Federal Steering Committee and Science Leads developed a SOCCR2 Author Guide, which contained specific guidance on maintaining information quality and adhering to the IQA. They provided the guide to the assembled author team of each chapter at the beginning of the report development process in early 2016. The guidance included a decision tree developed and provided by USGCRP, as previously used by the Climate and Health Assessment (USGCRP 2016). The decision tree and a list of provided questions guided the authors’ consideration of whether and how to use source materials in SOCCR2. It assisted authors in evaluating potential sources and references from the peer-reviewed scientific literature and governmental reports and in using gray literature in limited situations, identifying needed additional documentation to justify its use. Accordingly, during each chapter’s development and the revisions arising from the iterative peer and federal reviews occurring between the summers of 2016 and 2018, chapter teams assessed available literature and information sources, primarily focusing on and using ­peer-reviewed scientific literature (see References and Supporting Evidence at the end of each chapter). Because SOCCR2 is a special USGCRP Sustained Assessment report that also contributes to the Fourth National Climate Assessment Vol. II (due to be published in late 2018), many of these guidelines are consistent with or directly derived from the Third National Climate Assessment (Melillo et al., 2014). The guidelines, along with guidance documents from other Sustained Assessment special reports, were adapted to the specific context of the SOCCR2 effort.