Integrated, Coordinated, Open, and Networked (ICON) Science to Advance the Geosciences: Introduction and Synthesis of a Special Collection of Commentary Articles

The sciences struggle to integrate across disciplines, coordinate across data generation and modeling activities, produce connected open data, and build strong networks to engage stakeholders within and beyond the scientific community. The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is divided into 25 sections intended to encompass the breadth of the geosciences. Here, we introduce a special collection of commentary articles spanning 19 AGU sections on challenges and opportunities associated with the use of ICON science principles. These principles focus on research intentionally designed to be Integrated, Coordinated, Open, and Networked (ICON) with the goal of maximizing mutual benefit (among stakeholders) and cross‐system transferability of science outcomes. This article (a) summarizes the ICON principles; (b) discusses the crowdsourced approach to creating the collection; (c) explores insights from across the articles; and (d) proposes steps forward. There were common themes among the commentary articles, including broad agreement that the benefits of using ICON principles outweigh the costs, but that using ICON principles has important risks that need to be understood and mitigated. It was also clear that the ICON principles are not monolithic or static, but should instead be considered a heuristic tool that can and should be modified to meet changing needs. As a whole, the collection is intended as a resource for scientists pursuing ICON science and represents an important inflection point in which the geosciences community has come together to offer insights into ICON principles as a unified approach for improving how science is done across the geosciences and beyond. Plain Language Summary The way that scientific research is designed and carried out influences who and what benefits from the research outcomes, and how transferable those outcomes are. ICON principles are a tool designed to help scientists maximize the mutual benefit and transferability of their work. These principles are based on intentionally designing research to Integrate disciplines, Coordinate use of consistent methods, openly share ideas/data, and Network with diverse stakeholders for mutual benefit. The relevance of these principles and how to best use them across a spectrum of research is unknown. A collection of commentary articles was crowdsourced from across the geosciences to fill this gap. We report on the creation of the collection and summarize themes that emerged across the 19 a