WE-CAN DATA POLICY

Updated 20 April 2018

1. Instrument teams will provide quicklook data products to the project PIs in ICARTT format for merging with other data sets within 24 hours of a flight to support in field quality control and flight planning. Model output related to the WE-CAN data sets will be similarly made available to the science teams as soon as is practical.
2. All instrument teams participating in WE-CAN agree to promptly submit their preliminary quality controlled measurement data in ICARTT format to the WE-CAN Data Archive Center (WDAC) within 2 months after the project data are acquired. For real-time data collected in the field, this is by 15 November 2018. Similarly, model investigators agree to submit appropriate model products by 15 November 2018 to the WDAC. This will facilitate inter-comparison of results, quality control checks and inter-calibrations, and integrated interpretation of the combined data set. The preliminary data submission period for most data is therefore from 15 September 2018 to 15 November 2018. For measurements that require off-line analysis after the field project, including chemical analysis of samples collected, preliminary data should be released within 6 months of analysis, by 15 March 2019.
3. All instrument teams and model investigators participating in WE-CAN agree to submit their final quality controlled measurement data and appropriate model products to the WDAC. There are different deadlines for real-time versus off-line datasets. For real-time data, the deadline for final data submission is 15 March 2019. For off-line data, the deadline for final data submission is 15 June 2019. This will facilitate final merging and quality control checks in advance of the initial public release on 15 September 2019.
4. Preliminary and final data should be in the ICARTT format and include documentation in the form of a readme file describing the measurement and data processing procedures used to generate the data. Remote sensing data and model output can be provided in other formats, but also must include documentation in the form of a readme file describing the data processing procedures and the relevant model routines. Instrument investigators are encouraged to also submit raw data and all data processing routines used to get from the raw to final data products.
5. All data, metadata and model products in the archive will be considered open to the public domain 1 year after the data are acquired; (i.e., 15 September 2019 and thereafter for most data). However, any data, metadata or product within the WDAC at EOL can be opened to the public domain earlier at the discretion of the responsible data/product provider in consultation with the WE-CAN PI Team.
6. During the initial data analysis period, defined as from 15 September 2018 to 14 September 2019 (a one-year period following the end of the WE-CAN Field Deployment), WE-CAN Investigators will have exclusive access to the 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 prepare manuscripts for publication and presentation.
7. Quicklook and preliminary data sets and model products will be distributed within the WE-CAN team and may be shared outside the team (with permission of the investigator responsible for the production of the data set) to support early analyses. However, in no case shall quicklook or preliminary data be used in a publication or conference presentation without agreement from the investigator or modeler making the data or product available.
8. A list of WE-CAN investigators will be maintained by NCAR/EOL and will include the investigators directly participating in the field experiment as well as collaborating scientists who are members of the WE-CAN Science Team and agencies who have provided guidance and data in the planning and analysis of WE-CAN data. All data shall be promptly provided to other WE-CAN investigators upon request if not available through the archive. All WE-CAN investigators will have equal access to all data. No restricted data will be provided to non- WE-CAN Investigators without the permission of the PI who collected that data.
9. During the initial analysis period, the Investigator(s) who collected the data or generated model output must be notified of the intent to use the data or model products in the early phase of the research project and especially before any journal articles, presentations, research proposals are developed. If the PI makes a significant intellectual contribution to the research, or if the data are essential to the work, or if an important result or conclusion depends on the data, co−authorship would normally be expected. This should be discussed at an early stage in the work. Any published use of the data should include an acknowledgment and/or a citation as described below.
10. All acknowledgments of WE-CAN data, metadata and model products should identify: (1) the WE-CAN campaign; (2) the crew and support staff at the NCAR Research Aviation Facility; (3) the providers who collected the particular datasets or conducted the model simulations used in the study; (4) the relevant funding agencies associated with the collection of the data or model simulations; (5) the role of EOL or relevant data archive center, and (6) use of any relevant Digital Objective Identifiers (DOIs). A suggested acknowledgment reads “The author(s) wish to acknowledge the WE-CAN Project, [xxx data provider] for the use of the [yyy particular data] funded by zzz [relevant funding agency], the WE-CAN Data Archive Center at NCAR’s Earth Observing Laboratory [and/or any other relevant Archive Center]. In addition, this text could include “This dataset is cited through doi:xx.xxxx/xxxxxxxx”, or preferably use the appropriate dataset citations(s) in the Publications References Section. EOL expects to be assigning DOIs for all final datasets submitted to the main archive at EOL. Further, note that close collaboration and co-authorship with investigators collecting the data or creating the model products is highly encouraged.
11. EOL will be responsible for the long-term data stewardship of the WE-CAN archive, but we also plan to add the WE-CAN data to the NASA archive that will be used to host the 2019 FIREX-AQ dataset.