Polluted Troposphere Data Protocol

The aims of the Data Protocol are

• to encourage rapid dissemination of scientific results from the Polluted Troposphere programme;
• to protect the rights of the individual scientists funded by the Polluted Troposphere programme;
• to have all the involved researchers treated equitably;
• to ensure the quality of the data in the Polluted Troposphere data archive.

These aims conflict at times, and it is hoped that the provisions of the protocol resolve these conflicts fairly. It is recognised that this cannot always be achieved to everyone's complete satisfaction; there are bound to be cases where individual interests clash with those of the Polluted Troposphere programme. Therefore, to try to meet these aims, all PIs involved in Polluted Troposphere, in accordance with and on behalf of their co-investigators, must agree to abide by the following conditions:

1. Data and model results of interest to Polluted Troposphere groups that will be produced during the programme will be made available to all Polluted Troposphere participants, and Polluted Troposphere participants only, during a restricted access period ending two years after the concerned project end date, after which data and model results will be released to the public domain. At a principal investigator's request, access may be extended to personally authorised collaborators.
2. The designated Polluted Troposphere data centre is the BADC.
3. When relevant, preliminary data must be made available to Polluted Troposphere collaborators as soon as possible. Any corrections or amendments to the preliminary data should be announced as soon as possible.
4. All validated processed data (i.e. data sets in their final form), as well as quality-checked raw data that will have been recognised of general interest to the community, will be archived at the BADC. Archival must take place no later than the end of the concerned project.
5. If an error in the data is signalled to the BADC after archival, the updated version provided by the originator of the data will be archived alongside the old version or will replace the old version, depending on the nature of the error and in agreement with the data provider. If the error is detected by a user, the originator of the data will be consulted and only changes provided by him/her will be archived, following the same procedure as above. Both errors and updates will be reported and documented in the metadata attached to the respective data files.
6. Results of model studies feeding other Polluted Troposphere projects will be submitted to the BADC.
7. Data submitted to the BADC must be in the data format agreed between Polluted Troposphere principal investigators and the BADC (namely NetCDF and NASA Ames).
8. All agreed metadata describing data, models and model results, regardless of their archival location, must be supplied to BADC. Format and metadata are documented at BADC.
9. It is each principal investigator’s responsibility to ensure that the data used in publications are the best available at that time.
10. If measurements or model results from other Polluted Troposphere research groups are used in a publication by a Polluted Troposphere participant, joint authorship must be offered. This does not necessarily have to be accepted, particularly in cases where due credit and acknowledgement can be given in other, possibly more appropriate, ways.
11. Whilst the data are restricted from the public domain (see Clause 1), each principal investigator has the right to refuse to allow his/her work, whether measurement or calculation, to be used in a publication or presentation prior to the PI’s own publication of that work.
12. Whilst the data are restricted from the public domain, no data should be transferred to a third party without the originator’s consent.
13. In the event of dispute the final decision rests with the Polluted Troposphere Scientific Steering Committee.