Before you can have access to S2K data you must be an S2K participant and agree to the terms and conditions of the data policy. After agreeing to the data policy and filling Out the membership registration form, the S2K steering committee will review and approve your membership. We will send a User ID and Password to you within 5 Days, so that you may obtain S2K data and also enter your own data sets in the S2K data system (Mercury)
"Registration of this site
is intended for scientists and students actively
involved in the collection and/or processing of SAFARI 2000 data. If you have
not previously been associated with SAFARI 2000, please add sufficient
detail (3 to 4 paragraphs) so that the science team may assess how your
proposed project will make use of and add to the overall SAFARI 2000 science
effort. For users just wishing to browse the very substantial public section
of this website, which includes the project overview, sample images and much
more, we suggest you access the web-site through the GUEST user sign-on."
PLEASE READ TO THE END of the DATA POLICY TO PROCEED
The SAFARI 2000 data policy is
based on Open data sharing, cooperation, and synergism. The data policy is implemented
to ensure:
·
Participants have access to data in a timely manner;
·
Intellectual property rights are protected; and
·
Co-authorship, acknowledgement, or credit is given to data originators
and principal investigators.
Two
sources formed the basis for the SAFARI 2000 data policy:
·
The International Council of Scientific Union’s policy on Open data and
data sharing; and
·
NASA’s EOS Validation Program
data policy which stipulates that principal investigators submit preliminary
results to the project Archive within 6 to 12 months from the date of measurement.
The data policy will persist beyond
the life of the SAFARI 2000 Science Steering Committee.
SAFARI 2000 will establish a
Southern African Regional Data Center to provide tools for documenting, storing,
searching, and distributing data and images. In addition to a repository and
retrieval centre, the regional data centre will be a focal point for training
in remote sensing. Data generated by SAFARI 2000 will be permanently Archived
in Southern Africa at the Southern African Regional Data Center and in the U.S.
at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Earth Observing System Distributed Active
Archive Center (ORNL EOS DAAC).
All SAFARI 2000 data should be
made available to all SAFARI 2000 participants through Open online storage or
subMission to the Regional Data Center. Data, once quality assured, must be
submitted promptly to the Center. Access
to some of the data at the Regional Data Center will be limited to registered
SAFARI 2000 participants for a period of 18 months after completion of the project.
(see SAFARI 2000 Participant Registration section).
Eighteen months after official
completion of the project (estimated to be June 30, 2003), SAFARI 2000 data
will be placed in the public domain, except for commercially restricted or copyrighted
data. SAFARI 2000 acknowledges that some investigators may be required by their
funding agencies to follow established agency guidelines for public distribution
of project data on shorter time scales.
Data sets that are the subject
of student theses or dissertations will be given special consideration. Data
reserved for student use may not be published, included in a review in a manner
that will compromise the originality of the student’s thesis, or cited by other
investigators (including SAFARI 2000 participants) prior to completion of the
student’s thesis, or withOut written perMission from his/her advisor. This special consideration will be limited to 2 years after
data collection for a masters student and 3 years after collection for a doctoral
candidate.
To reserve a data set for student
use, the student’s supervisor will be asked to register data sets with the SAFARI
2000 Steering Committee, who will maintain a registry of such data and associated
projects. The request must be supported
with an abstract of the student’s research project, indicating the scope of
the use of the data and details of the data requiring special protection. The
registry will be maintained as part of the Regional Data Center and will contain
the abstracts and details of protected data sets. This registry will be accessible
to SAFARI 2000 participants.
Registration of protected data
sets for student use will not imply exclusive use of data by the student. After
consultation of the student’s advisor, use of data in ways that will not infringe
on a student’s thesis topic will be permitted. In case of uncertainty or dispute,
the SAFARI 2000 Steering Committee will decide on fair use.
Students are required to register
data and submit data sets to the SAFARI 2000 Data Centers within 6 to 12 months
of collection to ensure that data are available after completion of dissertation.
Use of SAFARI 2000 data in a student’s thesis requires acknowledgement
as Outlined in the SAFARI 2000 Acknowledgements section below.
A registered SAFARI 2000 participant
is defined as a scientist who has registered with the Regional Data Center and
been approved as a participant by the Science Steering Committee. Registration
requires an explicit declaration by the registrant to abide by the SAFARI 2000
Data Policy, and completion of an abstract describing the registrant's project(s)
and links to the SAFARI 2000 science framework.
Registration as a SAFARI 2000
participant provides a scientist with privileged access to SAFARI 2000 data,
notification of and invitations to SAFARI 2000 data meetings, and inclusion
on SAFARI 2000 mailing lists.
SAFARI 2000 participants are expected
to actively participate in data sharing.
First, they should inform SAFARI 2000 of their primary and derived data
holdings through the registration of metadata
as soon as possible after collecting or procuring a data set. Metadata registration occurs in the Mercury system maintained
by the ORNL DAAC (http://www.daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/MDE/S2K/access.pl). This
entails completing a brief, standardized form with metadata information.
Metadata are used to describe the characteristics of datasets such as
content, quality, condition, and geographic extent.
Metadata include the names of the investigators, the title of the data
set, keywords, and descriptive information related to the project for which
the data are collected.
Second, when primary data reduction
and quality checking procedures are complete, or secondary data products are
stabilized, participants should make such data sets available to SAFARI 2000
participants. This may entail sending complete data sets to the SAFARI 2000
Data Center. It can also be done
by updating your metadata file in Mercury and providing WWW links to data sets
stored on online computers. Before
data sets can be considered final and complete, the investigator must also provide
documentation of the data. An Outline
for this documentation will be provided.
The metadata database facilitates
the rapid sharing of information between SAFARI 2000 participants by assembling
descriptive Summaries of all research activities in a searchable index.
Such information allows for the identification of potential gaps and
or overlaps in the SAFARI data Archive and may aid in the avoidance of redundant
field efforts. The metadata entries can be made publicly searchable, even
though the data sets themselves may be restricted to SAFARI 2000 participants
or copyright restricted.
Time frames for metadata registration
and data availability may vary by project within SAFARI 2000.
Metadata registration should be carried Out at the earliest possible
time after planning, collecting or procuring the data sets.
The SAFARI 2000 Steering Committee strongly encourages that data be released
to SAFARI 2000 investigators as soon as possible but no later than one year
after collection. Early availability of data will be especially important for
validation of remote sensing products and for the integration and synthesis
of SAFARI 2000 results.
Originators may specify appropriate
restrictions to data sets depoSited at the Regional Data Center. These restrictions
should be included in the metadata registration.
Such restrictions may include an initial (up to 18 month) limit to registered
SAFARI 2000 Scientists. [Note that some data sets, such as those associated
with NASA funded projects, will have totally unrestricted access and are not
limited by this policy.]
This data policy does not replace
or supercede the requirements of International Agreements between individual
countries to deposit data collected from individual countries at specified repositories.
The analysis and interpretation
of data by all participants who generate the data are supported.
Co-authorships must include all who have contributed substantially to
the work. In case of doubt, co-authorship should be offered.
Given that collaboration signifies the spirit of SAFARI 2000, joint publications
between in-region and Out-of-region Scientists are especially encouraged.
Participation in SAFARI 2000 is
not restricted to Scientists or students who participated in field studies.
After registration as a SAFARI 2000 participant, investigators using data generated
by other investigators should request perMission from the data originator and
offer co-authorship. In cases where data from other investigators are a minor
contribution to a paper, the data should be cited or acknowledged in a mutually
agreeable fashion.
While Open data sharing is
at the essence of the SAFARI 2000 Data Policy, the intellectual property rights
of the data originator are not subsumed by this Policy. Sharing of data through
this Policy or placing data with the Regional Data Center does not constitute
publication of the data or ideas, and does not implicitly or explicitly allow
use or citation of the data or ideas withOut proper perMission.
SAFARI 2000 investigators, as
a condition of registration, agree to include an acknowledgement in each publication,
report or public presentation arising from participation in SAFARI 2000. Such
participation shall include field campaigns, use of facilities and equipment
funded in part or whole by SAFARI 2000, logistical and administrative support,
access to countries or research locations under the SAFARI 2000 name, salaries
or bursaries from SAFARI 2000 associated funding or otherwise benefiting from
SAFARI 2000. The wording shall
be similar to the following:
This
study was part of the SAFARI 2000 Southern African Regional Science Initiative.
Data providers and funding agencies
may request Additional acknowledgements.
Upon publication of results,
SAFARI 2000 requests that at a minimum a full reference of the work be provided
to the Regional Data Center for archival purposes and preferably an electronic
and/or paper copy of reprint.
When data are required for modeling
or integrating studies, the originator of the data should be consulted before
data or derived products are incorporated or published in a review or integrated
study. The scientist collecting such data shall be credited appropriately by
either co-authorship or citation.
The provisions of the data policy
apply to data collected as part of the SAFARI 2000 Initiative.
Pertinent data collected by participants prior to SAFARI 2000 are not
included in the Open access. Placement of such data in the shared data pool
shall be at the sole discretion of the originator or institutional owner of
such prior data. Access to such data shall be negotiated directly with the data
owners, and the SAFARI 2000 name shall not be used to gain privileged access
to prior data.
The SAFARI 2000 Science Steering
Committee will seek to enable access to restricted data sets that are pertinent
to the SAFARI 2000 science aims. This will include making contact, through the
Country Representatives on the Steering Committee, with relevant officials and
institutions, to negotiate such access on behalf of SAFARI 2000 participants.
Further, the SAFARI 2000 Science
Steering Committee will attempt to acquire and distribute relevant commercial
data products on behalf of all SAFARI participants.
In some cases, however, commercial or governmental restrictions beyond
the control of the Steering Committee may limit distribution.
Conflicts over the interpretation of this Data Policy, or its implementation, will be submitted to the SAFARI 2000 Science Steering Committee. Participants agree to comply with the decisions of the SAFARI 2000 Science Steering Committee in such conflicts.