Data Policy Philosophy

### Philosophy and Motivation

The fundamental objectives of U.S. GLOBEC are dependent upon the cooperation of scientists from several disciplines. Physicists, biologists, and chemists must make use of data collected during U.S. GLOBEC field programs to further our understanding of the interplay of physics, biology, and chemistry. Our objectives require quantitative analysis of interdisciplinary data sets and therefore data must be exchanged between researchers. To extract the full scientific value, data must be made available to the scientific community on a timely basis.

Precedent and perception have resulted in a disparity of data collection, storage, and archival methods. This makes the exchange of data difficult and may suppress dissemination of data. The U.S. GLOBEC Scientific Steering Committee seeks to enhance the value of data collected within the U.S. GLOBEC program by providing a set of guidelines for the collection, storage, and archival of these data sets.

The policy detailed below applies to all U.S. GLOBEC investigators. Field data, retrospective data sets, and numerical experiments must all be included in the U.S. GLOBEC database.