ECDS Data Publication Plan Template

Declaration to publish metadata through ECDS
We will publish environmental and climate data created by the proposed project through the ECDS metadata portal using the ECDS metadata profile[1]
1. Description of the data collected
Summary (short description of data set)
2. Plan for data collection and data publication
Begin Date of Data Set / End Date
Data format name (e.g. netcdf, txt, excel, …) / Data format version (if known):
Expected data publication date (justification needs to be given for delayed publication)
3. Budget for data publication
Budget figures for data publication justified along with the other budgeted items in the application.
4. Contact information regarding the dataset
Individual name / E-mail
Organisation name
Additional information (optional)

We have already previously contributed information on environment and climate data through the ECDS-portal. [Give example(s) if appropriate].

We also plan to publish additional environment and climate data produced outside the scope of the proposed project through the ECDS-portal. [Give example(s) if appropriate]

2013-04-08

Data Publication Plan – Guidelines

Requirements for Environment and Climate Research Projects

More and more research funding agencies are explicitly requiring the publication of data produced within projects funded through them. E.g. Formas (Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning) hasintroduced special provisions regarding open access to data from grants that enable substantial collection of data on climate and environmental research. The aim is to ensure that the data can be used in the future by researchers other than those who participated in the project. More information can be found in calls for proposals at

Environment Climate Data Sweden – ECDS

Environment Climate Data Sweden, ECDS[2], is a Swedish service facilitating the search, publication and long-term accessibility of data for research in the fields of environment and climate.ECDS is a joint undertaking of the Swedish Research Council (VR) and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), in collaboration with the National Supercomputer Centre (NSC) of LinköpingUniversity. ECDS consists of a clearinghouse mechanism, allowing for the search and publication of relevant data, and a service infrastructure, aimed to provide support to scientists on data management and data publication issues.

Support to form your Data Publication Plan

This document is intended to help you with the creation of a data publication plan. In order to create a data publication plan for your specific project, go through sections 1-4 on the next page and provide the required information. You may compile the information in free text form in a separate document but you are also most welcome to use our template on pages three and four of this document. The supporting text on pages one and two of this document are only provided for your guidance and should be removed when the data publication plan is finalised. If you have further questions on data publication, you are also welcome to contact ECDS directly ().

Data publication plan – Specific requirements by Formas

NOTE

The specific requirements on this page and the template on the next page are based on requirements according to Formas’ calls for proposals in spring 2013. Note that other research funding agencies may have different requirements.

According to Formas’ calls for proposals the data publication plan must include:

  1. Description of data to be collected during the project. The description should include a general metadata declaration.
  2. Overall plan for data collection and data publication. The plan should indicate when data are to be collected, how data will be stored, and when and how the data can be made available to other users. Justification must be given for delayed publication.
  3. Budget for data publication. Justify the budget figures for data publication along with the other budgeted items in the application. NOTE! Grant applications should not cover costs for data storage that are rightfully the responsibility of an agency.
  4. Contact person(s) and contact information regarding questions about the data.

ECDS also recommends that you include the following statements:

We will make any environment and climate data produced within the proposed research project accessible through the ECDS metadata portal within a reasonable time in accordance with the requirements of the research funding agency.[3]

We have taken notice of the requirement to appropriately describe environment and climate data produced by our project in accordance with the metadataprofile developed by ECDS.

If you have a previous record of publishing data for the benefit of the broader scientific community or intend to make any additional data outside the proposed project available through the ECDS-portal you could also include something like the following if appropriate.

We have already previously contributed information on environment and climate data through the ECDS-portal. [Give example(s) if appropriate].

We also plan to publish additional environment and climate data produced outside the scope of the proposed project through the ECDS-portal. [Give example(s) if appropriate]

The template on the two first pages in this document addresses the above requirements 1-4 by using a small subset of metadata elements from the ECDS metadata profile. If you decide to use the ECDS template for your data publication plan you will thus get a first chance to familiarize yourself with the ECDS metadata profile. As a consequence, it will be relatively easy for you to provide ECDS with the complete metadata for your project’s environment and climate data when your project is finished and when it is time for data publication.The ECDS metadata profile uses a subset of ISO19115:2003[4] and is in line with requirements of the European INSPIRE-directive.

[1]Note that ECDS is an infrastructure aimed at environment and climate data. For other themes there may be other relevant national and/or international organs for data collection (e.g., Global Change Master Directory, GBIF, LifeWatch, ICOS…). If you plan to publish your data through one of those initiatives instead, you should make this clear in your data publication plan and adjust the publication declaration section accordingly or choose another template.

[2]The ECDS-initiative was previously known under the name SND-KM, Swedish National Data Service for Climate and Environment.

[3] Note that ECDS is an infrastructure aimed at environment and climate data. For other themes there may be other relevant national and/or international organs for data collection (e.g., Global Change Master Directory, GBIF, LifeWatch, ICOS…). If you plan to publish your data through one of those initiatives instead, you should make this clear in your data publication plan.

[4] Even if you decide not to use the ECDS metadata profile for the description of your data we still strongly recommend to use ISO-standards.