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Current Data

Data Use Policy

C. Guidelines for access and use of the PEL data

Procedures to access and use the PEL data differ depending on which data are sought and what use is to be made of them.

2. 2000+ Resurvey data on community composition and environmental variables

Here, we lay out policies of staged access and release, reflecting the fact that these data are still be generated, processed into databases, and being analyzed for publication. Our general policies are that:

a) Those that direct the collection and manipulation of a given data set earn a period of exclusive access to those data. The period of exclusive access should be long enough to allow reasonable time for data checking, data analyses, writing-up manuscripts, and submitting the initial papers based on these data. However, the period of exclusive access does not extend indefinitely.

b) As papers are published using a particular data set, those data will be deposited in a permanent data bank. All the features of the data (i.e., its metadata) are publicly available at this point, although the full data themselves may not be.

c) A period of limited access to the full data may follow publication of the initial paper(s) that use a given data set if additional papers that use these data are planned and in process at that time. This period should allow reasonable time for these additional papers to be completed and submitted (typically <24 months from the initial paper’s publication and the posting of the meta-data). A current list of working titles and authors for these papers is available via our website, and currently resides at: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg2xbhfc_74hzdk2tn8

d) Following approved periods of limited access (under (c) above), the full data set and metadata will be made available, either via our own PEL web pages or via access to electronic or paper files by another route.