HF Information Management System
This page provides an overview of the Harvard Forest Information Management System (IMS).
1. Purpose & Scope
The Harvard Forest IMS is designed to store and deliver scientific information (data and metadata) resulting from research at the Harvard Forest. In its current form it includes most data collected over the last 20 years (both LTER and non-LTER) as well as selected data from earlier studies recorded in the Harvard Forest Archives. Datasets include both long-term and short-term field measurements as well as historical, paleoecological, and modeling studies. As a general rule, datasets are included in the IMS if they support a publication or are deemed to have long-term scientific value, regardless of the source of funding.
2. Online Data Archive
The design of the Harvard Forest IMS has evolved rapidly in recent years with steady improvements in cyberinfrastructure at the Forest. In its current form the online Data Archive consists of a series of static web pages accessed from the Data Archive home page. From this page users can find datasets by research category or by dataset ID (if known), or by searching the LTER Data Catalog. Each dataset has two associated web pages: an Overview page that contains discovery-level metadata (generated directly from EML via an XSL stylesheet), and a Data page that contains links to data files and associated attribute-level metadata. Tabular data are stored as comma-delimited text files while spatial data are stored as ArcView or Idrisi files. Large files are stored in a standard compressed format (zip).
3. Web Page
While the Data Archive contains much information on past and ongoing projects, other sections of the Harvard Forest web page provide information on recent, current, and upcoming projects:
The Major Research Topics section provides a comprehensive overview of all current research activities at the Forest, updated annually.
The Annual Harvard Forest Ecology Symposium Abstracts and Summer Student Research in Ecology Abstracts (see Publications) provide summaries of all current research projects at the Forest (with preliminary results and figures), updated annually.
All researchers who wish to work at the Harvard Forest are required to submit a Research Project Application. Applications are reviewed for their scientific merit, compatibility with Harvard Forest goals, and logistical feasibility. Information from the online forms is stored in a MySQL database and can be accessed from the Harvard Forest Intranet web page.
The Publications page contains a complete bibliography of the Forest as well as a growing list of journal articles available for download in pdf format.
4. Policies & Data Submission
Harvard Forest information management policies are posted on the Information Management Policy web page.
A Research Project Application must be submitted annually for every new and continuing research project at the Harvard Forest. This information allows us to track new and ongoing projects and ensure that data and metadata are submitted to the Information Manager in a timely fashion. Individual scientists prepare their own data and metadata files, which are checked, reformatted, and posted by the Information Manager. Primary responsibility for quality control rests with the individual scientist. The Data Archive is updated annually in conjunction with the Harvard Forest Ecology Symposium in later winter or early spring.
5. Related Materials
In addition to online scientific data, the Harvard Forest also maintains extensive document and sample collections. The Harvard Forest Archives contains document records for nearly 100 years of research at the Forest, including more than 1700 published and unpublished studies as well as extensive collections of maps and photographs. The Harvard Forest Sample Archives contains over 200 boxes of soil, litter, and tree core specimens. Both Archives are fully cataloged. Information on these and other resources for research are listed on the Site and Facilities web page.