Teoloyucan Geomagnetic Observatory operation over a Quality Management System ISO 9001:2015

Ana Caccavari-Garza, Gerardo Cifuentes-Nava, Armando Carrillo-Vargas, Adriana Elizabeth, Gonzalez-Cabrera, Charbeth López-Uría, and Juan Esteban Hernandez-Quintero🎗

🎗Deceased

Corresponding author to: Ana Caccavari-Garza (anacg@igeofisica.unam.mx)

GENERAL COMMENTS

This manuscript presents the experience of implementing an ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System (QMS) at the Teoloyucan Geomagnetic Observatory in Mexico.

The authors begin by emphasizing the essential role of geomagnetic observatories in providing long-term, accurate observations of the Earth's magnetic field. In the introduction, they highlight the global INTERMAGNET network working under the auspices of IAGA, which sets high standards for magnetic data quality. These standards are critical because observatory data are used in both scientific research and practical applications.

The authors argue that implementing a QMS is a valuable complement—not a replacement—for INTERMAGNET standards. While INTERMAGNET ensures high-quality data through technical specifications and final product control, ISO 9001 provides a structured system for managing the entire data production process. This includes monitoring compliance, ensuring efficient operations, and maintaining high-quality outputs.

The manuscript outlines various benefits of adopting a QMS, such as setting clear objectives, performing systematic risk analysis, promoting continuous improvement, conducting SWOT analysis, and developing strategic plans.

The methodology section describes in detail how the observatory adapted its operations to meet ISO 9001:2015 requirements. This includes defining the scope and quality goals (e.g., at least 90% data completeness), ensuring top management involvement, managing staff knowledge, controlling and maintaining instruments, implementing corrective and preventive actions, monitoring user requirements, and conducting audits. The authors also mention challenges, such as the extensive documentation needed and the cost of certification.

The results section presents the observatory’s “technical procedure,” which documents the full workflow—from data acquisition to publication on the website. The implementation of the QMS is reported to have improved the observatory’s organization and helped maintain high data quality. ISO 9001:2015 certification was obtained in November 2023.

The reviewer believes that introducing a QMS like ISO 9001:2015 does not compete with INTERMAGNET standards—it complements them. INTERMAGNET focuses on what should be achieved in terms of data quality, while ISO 9001 helps the observatory define and maintain how those goals are achieved in a systematic and efficient way. From this perspective, the manuscript is valuable and presents important insights that should be shared with the international community working on long-term geomagnetic observations.

However, some aspects of the manuscript need improvement. The discussion of benefits is often too general and theoretical. Although many advantages of the QMS are listed (e.g., clear goals, risk analysis, continuous improvement), the paper lacks concrete, measurable examples that show how these benefits translated into better data quality, more efficient operations, or problem-solving at Teoloyucan. It would be necessary  to include specific evidence - such as improvements in baselines determination.

Additionally, the structure of the manuscript is somewhat inconsistent. Several figures (1, 2, 4, 6, 12, and 13) are not referenced in the text, and some citations are unclear or incomplete. These issues have to be addressed to improve the clarity and coherence of the article.

Finally, the manuscript requires thorough language editing. The sentence structure needs simplification, and there are recurring issues with grammar and punctuation. A review by a native English-speaking editor is strongly recommended before publication.

Conclusion

This manuscript shares the experience of implementing the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System at the Teoloyucan Geomagnetic Observatory. This study can be highly relevant to the geomagnetic and broader geophysical community. However, in its current form, it falls short in terms of clarity, precision, and evidentiary support.

Recommendation: Accept with major revisions, focused on:

• Adding specific, measurable outcomes to support the claimed benefits,
• Correcting structural inconsistencies (especially regarding figures and references),
• Improving the overall clarity and language quality of the text.

With these improvements, the article will provide a strong and practical contribution to the literature on quality management in geomagnetic  observatories.

SPECIFIC COMMENTS

Line 41                 Reference to the wrong figure, because Figure 3 is

                               about “Structure of a Quality Management ..."

Line 53                 What does the abbreviation DFI mean? It is not explained anywhere.

Line 64                 The abbreviation DI is introduced but not used later.

Line 65                 This is the first time the abbreviation QMS is used. It's better to write the full name here

                               with "QMS" in parentheses, even though the full name appears in the title of the article.

Lines 79,84         This item is missing from the References.

Line 221               There should probably be a reference to Fig. 7 here.

Line 225               There is an unnecessary comma after the word "hut." The whole sentence is complicated and hard to read.

Line 314               It’s worth making the whole References section consistent with the chosen style, as much as possible.

Line 315               Punctuation. It's worth to add the DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/labmed/27.6.375

Line 331               This item is listed in the References but is not cited anywhere in the article.

Line 338               Should be probably: Rasson, J.L., Toh, H., Yang, D. (2011). The Global Geomagnetic

                               Observatory Network. In: Mandea, M., Korte, M. (eds) Geomagnetic Observations and Models. IAGA Special Sopron Book Series,

                                Vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9858-0_1

TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS

Lines 30,65,85   The author "Brake" is missing in the References. It is probably meant to be "Bracke."

Line 35                 There is a missing dot after "al"

Line 81                 It should be “Figure 3” (the dot is not needed)

Line 283               There is a missing comma after the word "however"

Line 339               There is missing “d” in “edited”

Teoloyucan Geomagnetic Observatory operation over a Quality Management System ISO 9001:2015

General comments:

The manuscript discusses the implementation of ISO 9001:2015 based on the experiences of the Teoloyucan Geomagnetic Observatory. It analyses the advantages and disadvantages of the standards for industrial quality management systems, especially in the field of regulating operational activities. Although we are informed about improvements in many areas, we do not get a clear answer in two questions: 1. The relationship of the observatory with the INTERMAGNET organization requires clarification, because according to the website https://intermagnet.org/metadata/#/imos the observatory is closed. 2. Regardless of the relationship between the observatory and INTERMAGNET, the question arises as to why the INTERMAGNET Technical Reference Manual (https://tech-man.intermagnet.org/stable/), which provides standards for geomagnetic observatory activities, is not directly mentioned? The quality management system pays special attention to external documents independent of the organization. We do not learn from the manuscript what happened in this specific case. The following sentence is important: “It is important to emphasize that implementing a QMS does not define the operating guidelines themselves, these are given by the international standards already mentioned: the purpose of a QMS is to verify that these guidelines, which are described throughout the QMS, are rigorously followed.” In summary: I recommend publishing a list of international documents regulating operations and including them in the references.

After making minor revisioons, the manuscript can be published.

Specific comments:

Line 40: What considerations were used to select the location of the observatory? The names of several measuring instruments are listed. On what principle did the mentioned devices operate and what quantity did they measure?

Fig. 2: The figure contains abbreviations that are explained later. Perhaps if any of the abbreviations in the figure were mentioned in the paragraph, the figure could be introduced afterwards.

Line 55: “In 1993, it was calibrated for the first time with a first-class standard observatory (Friedericksburg, USA). “ What does here the calibration mean? Performing a rigorous calibration is unthinkable with such a large distance.

Fig. 3: The figure contains levels which are explained later. Perhaps the figure could be introduced afterwards. Fig. 13: The meanings of the colors are not marked and the axis labels are sometimes illegible.

Technical corrections:

Line 48: The article of Berte l. et al.issing from the manuscrpit.

Line 330: The article of Kaziliūnas, A. is missing from the manuscrpit.

Line 35: Rasson et al, 2011 has an erroneous date (2001) in the references.

Line 60: The meaning of UNAM is not clear to me.

Line 65: The meaning of QMS is not defined.

Line 115: SWOT is absolutely not defined in this paragraph.