Tephra is a unique volcanic product that has played an unparalleled role in the understanding of past eruptions, long-term behavior of volcanoes, effects of volcanism on climate and the environment. It provides spatially widespread, extremely high-resolution geologic time markers. We present comprehensive tephra domain-specific improvements in the data gathering framework, consisting of standardized field data collection, laboratory analysis, and correlation recommendations developed as templates. This new approach will facilitate better tephra documentation and parametrization, increased and improved communication, and more effective data sharing among diverse and to some degree disconnected scholarly communities. We hope that this will result in a synergism that benefits all researchers who work with tephra. This new standardized framework is critical to unlocking future advances that are emerging in tephrochronology, to more completely characterize eruptions and tephra transport, and to exploring the nature of potentially global-scale time-stratigraphic markers. For paleoclimatology, archeology, societal volcanic risk assessment, and volcanogenic environmental impact research, the framework will provide tools for consistent evaluation of tephra deposits on a global scale and across scientific disciplines.