Data Policy

This policy offers a set of guidelines to ensure that data collected as part of C-MORE activities are shared between C-MORE teams, made available to the research community at large, and made available to the public. As a collaborative center, we strive to make datasets as widely available as possible at the earliest reasonable time. The guidelines were compiled in an effort to promote collaboration while protecting the intellectual property rights of C-MORE members.

Unless otherwise specified, “data” or “datasets” mentioned below refer to any data relevant to C-MORE research.

C-MORE data sharing guidelines

The data management team will maintain a master data inventory list, and provide online access to C-MORE data.
At a minimum, all data must be made publicly available within two years from the time of completion of sample processing.
Researchers are encouraged to make their data available as soon as possible to the C-MORE data management team.
Data supporting a publication (thesis dissertation, journal, etc.) should be submitted to the C-MORE database immediately upon publication, if not earlier.
Data may be made available online in four different status categories: “public”, “C-MORE members-only”, “available upon request”, or “in progress”.
Researchers are welcome and encouraged to include affiliated data in the C-MORE database. Affiliated data are data not funded by C-MORE but of interest to C-MORE researchers.

Responsibilities of the C-MORE researcher

data quality control
providing a complete list of datasets collected
providing the data in tabulated format where possible, with metadata as requested
ingesting metagenomic data into databases such as CAMERA
determining the appropriate status of their data
notifying the data management team of any data updates (changes, additions or publications)
verifying all online datasets and metadata

Responsibilities of the C-MORE data management team

soliciting data and metadata from C-MORE team members
organizing and ingesting the data in the C-MORE data server
formatting data to comply with database formats
ingesting data into BCO-DMO (a large online database)
providing online access to data and metadata
maintaining the master data inventory and database
updating data, metadata and their status upon request
maintaining separate databases for the general public and for C-MORE members only
maintaining an internal backup of the datasets

Publication of data

Posting data online is not considered “publication” and hence does not preclude subsequent publication in a journal.
Following publication of C-MORE research results, all data used in support of the publication must be made publicly available through the C-MORE database.
Any C-MORE data used in a publication must include in the citation a reference to C-MORE as the research supporting program, and NSF as funding agency. Example wording: "The [insert specifics] data used in this publication came from the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE), an NSF Science and Technology Center (EF-0424599)."

This data policy was compiled by the C-MORE data management team (Jasmine Nahorniak, Dave Karl, Ed DeLong, Ricardo Letelier, Scott Doney, and Paul Kemp). Questions concerning the policy should be addressed to the C-MORE data manager, Jasmine Nahorniak.

[ Top of Page ]