CARBON-OPS Data Policy

Version 1.0 (March 2008)

The following provides the data policy for the CARBON-OPS project.

Introduction
Data management
CARBON-OPS data policy
CARBON-OPS data citation
Appendix A: – Non-commercial licence for the use of data supplied by BODC

1. Introduction

CARBON-OPS is a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Knowledge Transfer project which aims to generate fully processed and quality controlled surface ocean pCO₂ and ancillary data from 2-years of quasi-continuous measurements on UK research vessels.

CARBON-OPS will not operate in isolation. The data generated as part of the project will constitute one of the main UK contributions to the international effort aimed at improving annual basin-scale estimates of air-sea flux of CO₂. It will build on existing collaborations in the UK (Oceans 2025), Europe (CARBOOCEAN) and at the global level (IOCCP) to contribute to the global network of observation programs and the building of global data sets.

Therefore, it is intended that CARBON-OPS data will be available to the wider scientific community as soon as possible after collection and integrated alongside other relevant data in the CDIAC World Data Centre for Atmospheric Trace Gases database.

The project has two phases:

a development phase when software, procedures and instrumentation will be thoroughly tested for instrument malfunction, bias, or technical and operational limitations affecting the quality of the data. During this phase, it is envisaged that CARBON-OPS data will be restricted to project partners and a few collaborators.
an operational phase when the project partners will aim to produce stable, quality assured and documented datasets of pCO₂ and ancillary data. These data will be freely available to the wider community under academic licence agreement. (See Appendix A)

In this context, the main objectives of the data management arrangements for CARBON-OPS are to:

Enable rapid access to the data by a wide range of users without compromising data quality and the rights of the people and organisations involved in the collection, processing and funding of CARBON-OPS;
Establish a framework which aims to protect the rights of the contributing scientists and recognise NERC as the creator or generator of the data;
Ensure the quality of the data provided to external users.

2. Data management

The management of the data collected within the CARBON-OPS project will comply with NERC's policy on data management. The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) will be the custodian of the pCO₂ and the ships' ancillary data collected in the frame of the project. BODC will be responsible for the safe archiving, cataloguing, updating and distribution of the CARBON-OPS dataset.

3. CARBON-OPS data policy

The following data policy framework applies to CARBON-OPS:

Near real-time and delayed mode raw pCO₂ and ancillary data will be lodged with the British Oceanographic Data Centre on acquisition.
Near real-time processed and automated quality controlled pCO₂ and ancillary data will be publicly viewable in graphical plots and maps via the CARBON-OPS web site.
Access to the near-real time raw and processed numerical data files will be restricted to CARBON-OPS participants and to a limited number of collaborating scientists. This is to enable the data to be fully quality checked.
With the exception of studentship-related data (see below), fully processed and quality controlled delayed mode data will become freely available as soon as possible after collection, under BODC's standard academic licence agreement (see Appendix A) or under a special agreement in the case of CDIAC.
In the case of PhD studentships, data central to the student's study will not be released by BODC for the duration of the studentship without prior agreement between the Data Centre, the CARBON-OPS Principal Investigator and the student's supervisor. On cessation of the studentship funding, all three parties will consult before allowing wider access to the data relating to the studentship. This is intended to protect a student's intellectual property, but does not imply that he/she has exclusive rights to CARBON-OPS data.
Until this data policy is revised, data and results from the data can only be used in publications following approval and agreement on accreditation with the CARBON-OPS Principal Investigator (Dr Nick Hardman-Mountford, Plymouth Marine Laboratory). For previously unpublished data, it should generally be expected that this will take the form of co-authorship.
Anyone making further scientific use of CARBON-OPS data will be required to acknowledge the source of the dataset as instructed in the CARBON-OPS data citation section below.
Any corrections, improvements or amendments to data must be lodged with BODC as soon as possible.
Anybody making use of CARBON-OPS data are responsible for ensuring that the data used in publications are the best available at the time.
During the time when data are restricted from the public domain, no data will be transferred to parties outside the programme without the explicit agreement of all the project's PIs including BODC.
BODC and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) do not guarantee the accuracy of any of the data supplied to the user. Neither BODC, PML, NERC nor any of the sources of the data and ancillary information shall be responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the use of, or results obtained from, the use of the data and their ancillary information.

4. CARBON-OPS data citation

Any use of CARBON-OPS data will need to acknowledge the source of the data as follows:

"Data supplied by the British Oceanographic Data Centre and collected under the UK Natural Environment Research Council Knowledge Transfer Programme CARBON-OPS NE/E002021/1."

5. Appendix A:

Non-commercial licence for the use of data supplied by BODC

Preamble

It is BODC's policy to encourage the use of its data holdings for the advancement of science and to supply data to bona fide scientific researchers at a charge not exceeding the marginal costs involved.

Oceanographic data are expensive to collect and, in particular, resources are required to maintain them and to make them available. It is essential that scientists receiving data from BODC do not compromise BODC's ability to recover costs from other users. It is therefore BODC policy to make data available through the mechanism of a licence agreement that formally lays down the conditions under which the data may be used.

The licence agreement also provides a mechanism to restrict the usage of data lodged at BODC on the specific understanding that they will only be made available for scientific research.

Scientists receiving data from BODC are expected to co-operate in making known their intended use of the data and in reporting back on the outcome of that use. Such information is required by BODC as evidence to a) justify the continued maintenance of the data and b) demonstrate the scientific value of making the data available.

Conditions of Use

The data may be used only for bona fide research i.e. academic research conducted solely to advance the state of knowledge with the results made freely available and published in the public domain and not used for any commercial gain.
The data may be used only for the research specified in the Data Schedule.
The data are supplied for your (the requesters) sole use. As the licensed user you will take reasonable care of the data to prevent them being accessed by others. The data, in whole or in part, may not be passed on or made available in any form to third parties in any circumstances without prior written permission from BODC.
BODC gives no warranty as to the accuracy of the data or as to the suitability of the data for their intended use by the recipient.
BODC reserves the right to charge the marginal costs involved in supplying the data - such charges will be agreed with the recipient before the data are dispatched.
The intellectual property rights in the data remain the property of NERC and/or the originating source(s) supplying the data to BODC.
Publications resulting from the use of the data shall include acknowledgement to BODC and to the originating source(s) supplying the data to BODC as listed in the Data Schedule.
The licence is non-exclusive and is time limited for a maximum period of two years from the date the data are dispatched by BODC. Continued use after this period requires the licence to be renewed.
Once the research for which the data are required has been completed or the licence has terminated (whichever is earlier), the recipient shall:
a) inform BODC of the outputs to which the data have contributed e.g. references to scientific publications or reports
b) offer to BODC, if requested and without charge, a copy of any value added data set or product derived from the data
c) inform BODC of any inaccuracies or errors detected in the data
d) delete the data from any local data collections in which they may be held
e) confirm in writing to BODC that all copies of the data have been destroyed or returned to BODC
BODC is entitled to terminate the licence at any time if the Conditions of Use are not observed and may revoke academic privileges in future if there is unauthorised redistribution of the data or the data are re-used for commercial purposes.