The UNAVCO Data Policy changed effective January 1, 2011. The change does away with the automatic 2-year data accessibility exclusive-use period (also known as embargo period or grace period) allowed for campaign data in the old June, 2003 policy. Our current policy as of January, 2011 makes the default accessibility for all data immediately openly-accessible, with no exclusive-use period. However, there is a clause in the new policy that allows for an exclusive-use period with approval of the sponsor. This sponsor-approved exclusive-use period can potentially apply to any class of data, i.e. campaign, permanent, continuous, semi-continuous , with comms, without comms, etc. This FAQ is intended to help Principal Investigators with understanding how the new policy will be put into effect for UNAVCO’s data archiving, how to obtain and document a sponsor-approved exclusive-use period, and, for data users, how to obtain information to appropriately attribute data collected by others.
A 1. The default accessibility for all data, whether from campaign, semi-continuous, or permanent stations, will be that the data are immediately openly-accessible when UNAVCO completes the archiving step. If you have sponsor approval for an exclusive-use period, you must notify UNAVCO using the Request Support form in advance of your initial data delivery. In the Request Support form, state your exclusive-use period in terms of data collection date. Example "I have an NSF approved exclusive-use period of 2 years post collection." The data collection date is the date of the last epoch of the file and is not necessarily the same as the download date; the collection date can be easily verified by UNAVCO archive technicians and software. It is also very important to coordinate with archive staff by clearly identifying the data deposits by using the appropriate selections on the Request Support form. Do not assume that UNAVCO staff know about your sponsor agreements and know that today’s deposit is associated with last year’s deposit that had the exclusive-use period documented.
A 2. No. UNAVCO will not spend time verifying that the PI has sponsor approval. However, if requested we will supply NSF with the names of PIs and data sets that the PI identified as having an exclusive-use period.
A 3. Yes. However, please note the archiving clause of the new data policy “All UNAVCO-facilitated GPS and other GNSS data and metadata must be archived at UNAVCO upon collection”. We encourage rapid depositing of data and metadata to improve the odds that nothing is lost and that questions arising during the archiving process can be answered by someone who still has the collection phase fresh in their memory. That said, disorganized data requires extra work for UNAVCO archiving staff and may result in archiving mistakes. Please make your best effort to organize and deposit your data and metadata in a timely way. When you are ready to deposit your data, please use the Request Support form to ensure that your exclusive use period is documented.
A 4. NSF has instituted a required Data Management Plan submission with all proposals beginning January 18, 2011. We recommend that within your two-page Data Management Plan, you clearly state your proposed exclusive-use period and your justification. Please state your exclusive-use period in terms of the date of collection of the data. (The data collection date is the date of the last epoch of the file and is not necessarily the same as the download date; the collection date can be easily verified by UNAVCO archive technicians and software.) Include in the plan that you will comply with UNAVCO's Data Policy regarding contributing data upon collection and to the guidelines established by UNAVCO for data and metadata submission for archiving. Assuming that your proposal is funded with no required revision to the proposed exclusive-use period spelled out in your Data Management Plan, the award constitutes sponsor agreement. Because UNAVCO does not have access to your proposal, we will rely on you to accurately tell us your approved exclusive-use period. This must be documented through our Request Support form at the time that you deposit the data even if you have already submitted a request for support for other services earlier in your project. This is the best way for archiving staff to track your approved exclusive-use period and avoid misunderstandings leading to release of data that should have been withheld.
A 5. Please send an e-mail to your NSF sponsor, letting them know that you are current with data archived at UNAVCO under the project award and that you would like to have a continued two-year exclusive-use period for the final year of the project. If your sponsor agrees, indicate your approved exclusive-use period using the Request Support form at the time that you deposit the 2011 data.
A 6. It's always best to contact the data provider directly. The easiest way to obtain contact information for the data provider is to send a request to archive-gps
unavco.org. The request should include the four character IDs for the stations of interest and/or the name of the campaign. For some individual stations, this information can be accessed from the Data Archive Interface by searching for the station and double clicking on its name in the Metadata panel. In addition, some RINEX files may include this information in the header. The data provider identifies the appropriate reference for the data you have accessed.
A 7. Contact the data provider(s) about your intentions for using the data, how to appropriately include them, and the sponsor-required award citations to be acknowledged. To identify providers, send a request to archive-gpsunavco.org. The request should include the four character IDs for all stations of interest and/or the name of the campaign.
Please address additional questions to dataunavco.org.