Scientific data form the basis of scientific and technological innovation and valuable scientific and technological information resources. Protection of intellectual property rights and promotion of broad sharing of data have long been a contradictory problem in the field of scientific data. Data publishing (publishing of integrated metadata, entity data, data papers) is an effective mechanism to solve this problem. By publishing integrated metadata, entity data and data papers, the "Global Geological Data Publishing System" (in Chinese and English) realizes scientific communication and sharing mechanisms through the internet and plays an important role in protecting data intellectual property and promoting data sharing as well. This system will enable geologists worldwide to share scientific data and provide a database for scientific and technological innovation in the geological field. Based on the concept of data publishing, this paper introduces global geological data publishing and discusses the significance of data sharing.