Context of identification and citation in LTER

Summary of LTER requirements for identification and citation

Detailed requirements

1. 1.      Identification and Citation
   a.   Identification
   i.      What granularity do your RI’s data products have:

• Content-wise (all parameters together, or separated e.g. by measurement category)?

Depends on the type of data. Both options are available. Time series (e.g. SOS) are normally providing one parameter. File based data provision is normally providing a block of related parameters in one file.

Sufficient MD need to be provided.

• Temporally (yearly, monthly, daily, or other)?

depending on the data provider; data on different levels of temporal aggregations should be provided, e.g. monthly means across all sites; more detailed depending on the needs

• Spatially (by measurement station, region, country or all together)?

both options could be; spatial aggregation or separation. MD need to specify also the spatial link to the research site.

 ii.      How are the data products of your RI stored - as separate “static” files, in a database system, or a combination?

Depending on the data type. Static for file based data (e.g. temporal slices) or dynamic (e.g. SOS). Both options are supported

iii.      How does your RI treat the “versioning” of data - are older datasets simply replaced by updates, or are several versions kept accessible in parallel?

currently different versions are kept by the data provider. The data portal (DEIMS) points to the most recent version of the data. versioning will be implemented (e.g. via B2SHARE) in the next version

iv.      Is it important to your data users that

• Every digital data object is tagged with a unique & persistent digital identifier (PID)?

yes, even is not implemented at the moment we are heading for

• The metadata for data files contains checksum information for the objects?

there are technical MD which are kept by the data repository (e.g. B2SHARE); here at the moment we separate them from ‘content MD’

• Metadata (including any documentation about the data object contents) is given its own persistent identifier?

not implemented at the moment. Need to be discussed

• Metadata and data objects can be linked persistently by means of PIDs?

yes

v.      Is your RI currently using, or planning to use, a standardized system based on persistent digital identifiers (PIDs) for:

• “Raw” sensor data?

vi.      Yes, versioning of the data important by keeping the PID

• Physical samples?

yes

• Data undergoing processing (QA/QC etc.)?

yes, versioning of data

• Finalized “publishable” data?

yes

vii.      Please indicate the kind of identifier system that are you using - e.g. Handle-based (EPIC or DOI), UUIDs or your own RI-specific system?

currently B2SHARE handle will be used

for data outside B2SHARE a solution needs to be found

viii.      If you are using Handle-based PIDs, are these handles pointing to “landing pages”? Are these pages maintained by your RI or an external organization (like the data centre used for archiving)?

in development within EUDAT2020

ix.      Are costs associated with PID allocation and maintenance (of landing pages etc.) specified in your RI’s operational cost budget?

currently not, as EUDAT2020 is offering that in the project framework. Cost will be specified if in a operational phase.

1. b.      Citation - to be done, planned: 20160118
   i.      How does your “designated scientific community” (typical data users) primarily use your data products? As input for modelling, or for comparisons?
   ii.      Do your primary user community traditionally refer to datasets they use in publications:

• By providing information about producer, year, report number if available, title or short description in the running text (e.g. under Materials and Methods)?
• By adding information about producer, year, report number if available, title or short description in the References section?
• By DOIs, if available, in the References section?
• By using other information?

iii.      Is it important to your data users to be able to refer to specific subsets of the data sets in their citation? Examples:

• Date and time intervals
• Geographic selection
• Specific parameters or observables

iv.      Is it important to be able to refer to many separate datasets in a collective way, e.g. having a collection of “all data” from your RI represented by one single DOI?

v.      What strategy does your RI have for collecting information about the usage of your data products?

• Downloads/access
• Visualization at your own data portal
• Visualization at other data portals
• References in scientific literature
• References in non-scientific literature
• Scientific “impact”

vi.      Who receives credit when a dataset from your RI is cited?

• The RI itself
• The RI’s institutional partners (all or in part, depending on the dataset contents)
• Experts in the RI’s organization (named individuals)
• “Principal investigators” in charge of measurements or data processing (named individuals)
• Staff (scientists, research engineers etc.) performing the measurements or data processing (named individuals)

Formalities (who & when)