All investigators participating in MPEX agree to promptly submit their quality controlled data to the MPEX Data Archive Center (MDAC) at the latest by 15 December 2013 (six months after the end of the field campaign) to facilitate inter-comparison of results, quality control checks and inter-calibrations, as well as an integrated interpretation of the combined data set.

During the initial data analysis period, defined as a one-year period following the agreed submission deadline to the MPEX archive, MPEX PIs will have exclusive access to this data. This initial analysis period is designed to provide an opportunity to quality control the combined data set as well as to provide the investigators ample time to publish their results.

All data will be considered public domain one year after the agreed submission deadline to the MPEX archive (i.e., on 16 December 2014 and thereafter). A data set within the MPEX archive can be opened to the public domain earlier at the discretion of the data provider for this particular data set.

All data shall be promptly provided to other MPEX investigators upon request. All MPEX investigators will have equal access to all data. A list of MPEX investigators will be maintained by NCAR/EOL and will include the Principal Investigators (PIs) directly participating in the field experiment as well as collaborating scientists who have provided guidance in the planning and analysis of MPEX data.

During the initial data analysis period, the investigator(s) who collected the data must be notified first of the intent to use the data, in particular if data is to be provided to a third party (e.g., journal articles, presentations, research proposals, other investigators). It is strongly encouraged that PIs responsible for acquisition of data be invited to become collaborators and co-authors on any projects, publications and presentations. If the contribution of the data product is significant to the publication, the PIs responsible for generating a measurement or a data product should be offered the right of co-authorship. Any use of the data should include an acknowledgment (i.e., citation). In all circumstances, the PIs responsible for acquisition of data should be acknowledged appropriately.