Data Sharing & Archival Policy

NOTE: These policies and procedures are subject to change. However, no retroactive changes are to be implemented.

The CTEMPS equipment represents a significant resource to the hydrologic and earth sciences community. The quality of the data collected by this resource is such that it will be of interest to investigators for many years. In order to encourage the use of the data by others and thereby make the facility of more value to the community, it is CTEMPS policy that all data collected by instruments be provided to the Center in ODM format so that they can be accessed by other interested investigators after a proprietary period of 6 months.

The Center's policy is that delivery of data is an obligation of the investigator, and the archival of the data for potential community use after the propriety period is the responsibility of the Center. As most instruments available from the Center will be delivered with wireless modem/data transmission systems, the Center will automatically archive raw data. However, it is the PI's responsibility to provide a Metadata Report on the experimental design for Center archiving. The Metadata Report will be generated in a consistent form with the National Water Metadata Catalog developed by the CUAHSI HIS and will contain data on the installation, experimental design and all other pertinent data appropriate for interpreting the results. The Center will provide archived data access to the PI throughout the course of the experiment and beyond. The data and MetaData Report will remain confidential for a period of 6 months after the end of the fieldwork. Requests for access to data prior to this time will be forwarded to the PI and the decision for early release will be made jointly by the PI and the Center.