It is not ethical to publish data without proper attribution or co-authorship. The data are the intellectual property of the collecting investigator(s).
The intellectual investment and time committed to the collection of a data set entitles the investigator to the fundamental benefits of the data set. Publication of descriptive or interpretive results derived immediately and directly from the data is the privilege and responsibility of the investigators who collect the data.
The purpose of a data archive is to facilitate collaboration between scientists, the combination of multiple data sets for interdisciplinary and comparative studies, and the development and testing of new theories. The data contained in the JGOFS/GLOBEC data management system are made available even though they may not be "final" (i.e. error free) data. This is dictated by and consistent with U.S. GLOBEC's data policy, Report #10 available on-line in Web format and PDF format.
Any person making substantial use of a data set must communicate with the investigators who acquired the data prior to publication and anticipate that the data collectors will be co-authors of published results. This extends to model results and to data organized for retrospective studies.
The data available here are intended for scholarly use by the academic and scientific community, with the express understanding that any such use will properly acknowledge the originating investigator. Use or reproduction of any material herein for any commercial purpose is prohibited without prior written permission from the Data Management Office.