The Office of Polar Programs
The National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Rm. 755
Arlington, VA 22230
29 January 1999
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing to draw your attention to the fact that the Office of
Polar Programs (OPP) has recently completed the development of a
document on "Guidelines and Award Conditions for Scientific Data" for
OPP researchers. The NEW guidelines and award conditions go into effect
for all OPP awards in FY99 and are considered to be a binding condition
on these awards. It is important that all OPP PIs review the document
so that they are in compliance with these new conditions.
The main points relate to the sharing, archiving, and description of
data and data sets:
Principal investigators should make their data available to all
reasonable requests and where applicable the principal investigators
should submit the data collected to designated data centers as soon
as possible, but no later than two (2) years after the data are
collected.Principal Investigators of OPP-awards are REQUIRED to submit to
appropriate electronic data directories, a description of their data
(i.e.. metadata) resulting from OPP funded research in the form of a
Directory Interchange Format (DIF) entry. PI's working in coordinated
programs with more stringent data requirements are responsible for
following the requirements of the coordinated program.
The full text of the document is provided below for your convenience and is
also available on the NSF website at:
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1999/opp991/opp991.txt.
Paper copies, for those unable to access the web pages, can be obtained by
contacting the OPP Information Assistant, Mr. David Friscic by phone at
703-306-1031 or by email at dfriscic [at] nsf.gov
Regards,
Karl Erb
Director
Office of Polar Programs
National Science Foundation
Office of Polar Programs
Guidelines and Award Conditions for Scientific Data
Purpose
This statement provides guidelines from the Office of Polar Programs
(OPP) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and sets out special
conditions applicable to OPP grants to implement the Foundation's Data
Sharing Policy by assuring timely submission of OPP-award data to
national data centers and other OPP-specified repositories for
secondary use by the scientific community. The Office of Polar
Programs, in conformance with NSF policy (see Grant Proposal Guide -
GPG, Section (VII-H), expects investigators to share with other
researchers, at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable
time, the data, derived data products, samples, physical collections
and other supported materials gathered or created in the course of the
research project. The purpose of this policy is to facilitate full and
open access to data and materials for polar research from projects
supported by OPP.
General Guidelines
For all OPP supported projects:
All data and derived data products collected under OPP-awards which
are appropriate for submission to a national data center or OPP
specified data repository (OPP-approved website) should be promptly
submitted within a reasonable amount of time, as described below, in
"Responsibilities of Principal Investigators of OPP-Awards".OPP considers the documentation of data sets, known as metadata, as
vital to the exchange of information on polar research and to a data
set's accessibility and longevity for reuse.Data archives of OPP-supported projects should include easily accessible
information about the data holdings, including quality assessments
supporting ancillary information, and guidance for locating and
obtaining the data.National and international standards should be used to the greatest
extent possible for the collection, processing and communication of
OPP-sponsored data sets.
Special Note for Arctic Social Sciences Awards: The Arctic Social Sciences
Program supports the full range of social science disciplines and adheres
to the Data Sharing Policy developed by NSF's Directorate for Social
Behavioral and Economic Research (SBER). The nature of the data, the way
they are collected, analyzed, and stored, and the pace at which this
occurs, vary widely. Different storage facilities and access requirements
exist for different types of social science data, e.g., archaeological
data, specimens from physical anthropology, large-scale survey data, oral
interviews, and field records. Where appropriate and possible, grantees
from all social science fields will develop and submit specific plans to
share materials collected with NSF support. These plans should cover how
and where these materials will be stored, at reasonable cost, and how
access will be
provided to other researchers, at their cost.
Many complexities arise across the range of data collection supported by the
Arctic Social Sciences Program. Therefore, such unusual circumstances and
any necessary modifications or exemptions to the general policy of data
sharing should be described in the OPP-awardees sharing plans.
Responsibilities of Principal Investigators of OPP-Awards
Principal investigators should make their data available to all reasonable
requests (as specified in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide, Section VII-H) and,
where applicable, the principal investigators should submit the data
collected to designated data centers as soon as possible, but no later than
two (2) years after the data are collected. For continuing observations,
data inventories should be submitted periodically if and when there is a
significant change in location, type or frequency of such observations.
Principal investigators working in coordinated programs (multi-investigator
and/or multi-agency programs) may (in consultation with the OPP program
managers and other funding agencies involved) establish more stringent data
submission procedures to meet the needs of these larger coordinated
programs. PIs with OPP-awards should comply with data policies established
for these coordinated programs and submit their data as required to the
appropriate repository stipulated by the coordinated program office.
Compliance with the data guidelines will be considered in the program
managers overall evaluation of a Principal Investigator's prior support
record.
Conditions for OPP-Awards
For all projects receiving funding in FY99, and for all subsequent
projects, Principal Investigators of OPP-awards are REQUIRED to submit
to appropriate electronic data directories, a description of their data
(i.e. metadata) resulting from OPP funded research in the form of a
Directory Interchange Format (DIF) entry. Principal investigators
of OPP supported projects initiated prior to FY99 are strongly encouraged
but not required to comply with DIF submission. Submission of the DIF may be
at any time during the tenure of the grant. At the time of submission of
the Final Report to NSF, a copy of the DIF must be sent to the cognizant
program officer in OPP. Failure to provide final technical reports delays
NSF review and processing of pending proposal for that PI. PIs should
examine the formats of the required reports in advance to assure
availability of required data.
NSF has implemented a new electronic project reporting system, available
through FastLane, which permits electronic submission and updating of
project reports, including information on: project participants (individual
and organizational): activities and findings; publications; and, other
specific products and contributions. Reports will continue to be required
annually and after the expiration of the grant, but PIs will not need to
re-enter information previously provided, either with the proposal or in
earlier updates using the electronic system.
Effective October 1, 1998, PIs are required to use the new reporting
format for annual and final project reports. PIs are strongly encouraged
to submit reports electronically via FastLane. For those PIs who cannot
access
FastLane, paper copies of the new report formats may be obtained from the
NSF Clearinghouse as specified above. NSF expects to require electronic
submission of all annual and final project reports via FastLane beginning in
October 1999.
Appropriate data directories for submission of DIFs are the Committee on
Earth Observing Satellites/International Directory Network (CEOS/IDN) nodes.
For OPP supported Antarctic projects, DIF submission should be to the
Antarctic Master Directory, via the National Antarctic Data Coordination
Center at http://www-nsidc.colorado.edu/NSF/NADCC. Data sets from all OPP
supported Antarctic Research projects should be submitted to the appropriate
data center for the specific type of data collected.
For OPP-supported Arctic projects, submission of DIFs should be to the
Arctic System Science Data Coordination Center at
http://arcss.colorado.edu.
Principal investigators are also encouraged to submit information (metadata)
on environmental data to the Arctic Environmental Data Directory (AEDD)
project sponsored by the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. Send
information to http://www-ak.wr.usgs.gov/aedd. All appropriate and required
data sets for the Arctic System Science Program (ARCSS) and the SCICEX
program should also go to the Arctic System Science Data Coordination
Center at http://arcss.colorado.edu. Data sets from all other OPP supported
Arctic
scientific research should go to the appropriate data center for the
specific type of data collected.
Sample DIFs can be found on the Global Change Master Directory web
page at http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov.
Any questions concerning this policy please contact the cognizant program
officer in the Office of Polar Programs or Dr. Linda E. Duguay. Email:
lduguay [at] nsf.gov or Phone: 703-306-1029.
Karl A. Erb
Director
Office of Polar Programs