RICO-UK Data Protocol
In agreement with the
RICO Data Policy
and with the FAAM Data Protocol enclosed below,
the following clauses apply to the share and use of RICO-UK data.
- RICO-UK data should be promptly provided to all RICO investigators through
the BADC archive.
- During the initial data analysis period (one year following the end of the field
phase, that is the 25th of January 2005), if data are provided to a
third-party (journal articles, presentations, research proposals, other
investigators), the investigator who collected the data must be notified first.
The initial analysis period is designed to provide an opportunity to quality
control the combined data set as well as to provide the investigators ample time
to publish their results.
- All data will be released to the public domain not more than one year following
the end of the RICO field phase.
In the particular case of the FAAM data, this applies in the following way.
-
Standard processed core data collected on board the FAAM aircraft are of public
access from the time of their submission to the BADC archive.
-
Access to cloud physics processed core data and non-core data collected on board
the FAAM aircraft will be restricted to the RICO community during the analysis
period, i.e. until the 25th of January 2006.
- During the one-year analysis phase, publications and communications related to
RICO-UK data, as well as co-authorship, will be at the discretion of the
investigator(s) who collected the data.
- After the analysis phase period, it is expected that investigators who have done
the initial analysis of the data will be invited to be co-authors of any
publication or communication based on or using RICO-UK data.
In the event that the offer is declined, investigators who have collected and
analysed the data must be duly acknowledged.
In addition, data collected on board the FAAM aircraft are subject to the FAAM Data
Protocol below.
FAAM Data Protocol
The aims of the Data Protocol are
- to encourage rapid dissemination of scientific results from the FAAM;
- to protect the rights of the individual scientists using the FAAM;
- to have all the involved researchers treated equitably;
- to ensure the quality of the data in the FAAM data archive.
These aims conflict at times, and it is hoped that the provisions of the protocol resolve
these conflicts fairly. It is recognised that this cannot always be achieved to everyone's
complete satisfaction; there are bound to be cases where individual interests clash with
those of FAAM. Therefore, to try to meet these aims, all scientists involved in the use
of the FAAM, in accordance with and on behalf of their co-investigators, must agree to
abide by the conditions stated below.
In what follows, it will be referred to "core" versus "non-core" data.
Core data are data
generated by core instruments as defined in the FAAM Instruments document
(http://www.faam.ac.uk/public/instrumentation.html),
which will be updated as new pieces of apparatus are assimilated to core instruments.
Core instruments are operated by staff appointed by the FAAM.
Flight logs will be considered as core metadata.
Non-core data will be all other data, i.e. data generated by non-core instruments onboard
the aircraft, which will be operated by the scientists conducting the experiments and
sponsored by the various project funding bodies.
In the clauses below, "FAAM scientists" will denote all the scientists running
experiments using the FAAM.
- The designated FAAM data centre is the British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC).
- All validated processed data (i.e. data sets in their final form) together with the associated metadata should be submitted to the BADC.
- The longevity of raw data must be ensured in a secure archive, possibly but not necessarily the BADC. Details pertaining to this raw data (i.e. metadata), whether or not archived at BADC, must be sent to the BADC, as well as information on how to access the data.
- All core data must be submitted to the BADC as soon as possible, together with scanned flight logs (no hardcopies).
- By default, once archived at the BADC, core data will be made freely available to all users within and outside FAAM. However, on request from the principal investigator of a project, access to the core data generated by that project may be made restricted to the project participants for a maximum of 12 months after the last flight.
- FAAM non-core data produced under the auspices of a NERC directed research programme will be subject to the data protocol of that programme. In the event of conflict the directed research programme protocol will take precedence.
- FAAM non-core data produced in contexts other than a NERC directed research programme will be subject to a data protocol to be set up in agreement with the project investigators. When the data production, distribution and use are already regulated by an existing programme policy, that policy will apply.
- Submission of non-core validated processed data must take place no later than two years after the campaign final date.
- Data submitted to the BADC must be in the data format agreed between FAAM and the BADC (namely, NetCDF and NASA Ames). All agreed metadata describing data (and possibly accompanying model results) must be supplied to BADC. Formats and metadata are documented at BADC.
- Data submission to the BADC should be made via Web uploading for files not exceeding 1 GB. Larger data files should be submitted on DVDs.
- Results of model studies feeding or accompanying FAAM campaign data analysis can be made available via the BADC.
- Data users are requested to contact the responsible scientist prior to any use of the data. FAAM scientists may request acknowledgement (or joint authorship) in any publications based, using or quoting their data.
- It is each principal investigator's responsibility to ensure that the data used in publications are the best available at that time.
- In the event of a dispute over this protocol the final decision rests with the FAAM Board.