The top graph shows the cumulative number of all publications in all peer-reviewed journals since the inception of SIGEO. The bottom graph provides data on all articles published in the prestigious journals Science, Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) since the start of SIGEO. The sharp increase in articles published in the high public impact journals beginning in 1997, almost two decades after the inception of SIGEO, establishes the importance and need for long-term, globally representative data sets.