Harvard Forest Data Archive

HF Data Policies

Policy for Submission of Data

The Harvard Forest endorses the LTER Network Data Access Policy which states that research data must be made available online within 2 years of collection and no later than publication of the main findings.

The following guidelines must be followed for all research projects at Harvard Forest:

1. A Research Project Application must be submitted by the PI at the start of a new project and annually thereafter until the project is completed.
2. Data and metadata must be submitted to the Information Manager within 2 years of collection for inclusion in the online HF Data Archive and the EDI (Ecological Data Initiative) repository. Exceptions to this rule must be approved by the HF Director. For instructions please see Guidelines for Submission of Data & Metadata.
3. Primary responsibility for data completeness and integrity (quality control) rests with the project PI.
4. Research Project Applications for the coming year will not be approved until all past data obligations are met.

Policy for Use of Data

Harvard Forest online data are freely available for downloading and subsequent use. Users are asked to comply with the following Use Statement which appears in the online metadata for each dataset:

This dataset is released to the public under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (No Rights Reserved). Please keep the dataset creators informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset should include proper acknowledgement.