In each section additional spacing may be added or deleted as needed.
PIE-LTER DATABASE
(1) FILE NAME: Please see the file naming protocol in the "Description of Data and Information Management" section on the PIE-LTER web site (http://ecosystems.mbl.edu/pie/data/protocol/datamng.htm)
(2) YEAR: The year or years that the data were collected.
(3) PI: Fill in the name of the PI responsible for the data collection.
(4) OTHERS: PIs, RAs or Techs who were also involved in the data collection or compilation.
(5) BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DATA FILE: Short, accurate explanation of the data set. Be informative since this is used as the description in the web page index.
(6) KEYWORDS: Words that may be helpful in cross-referencing or cataloging the data. These should be in lower case format, unless the word is a proper name.
(7) SITE TYPE: Indicate which of the main research areas this data refers to, ie. Watershed, Marsh, Estuary, Benthos, Higher Trophic Levels, Modeling, Long-Term Experiments, Short-Term Projects, Climate, or Estuarine Physics.
(8) RESEARCH LOCATION: The name of the sampling location, latitude and longitude if you have it. Remember to include not only the name, but, when necessary, details and descriptions of the sampling location.
(9) EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS AND METHODS: The description of methods should be fairly detailed and include any literature references (including author, title, journal and page numbers) pertaining to the methods.
(10) NOTES AND COMMENTS: Notes and comments about the data can go in two different places. Those with reference to the whole data set, including explanations of any problems with data collection or the data set, or reasons for missing data should be placed in this section. Comments about individual data points will not normally be included here, but will be placed in the actual data file (see VARIABLE DESCRIPTION below).
(11) VARIABLE DESCRIPTION:
Variable name -----Variable description-----------------Units------------------------------------------
This section describes the variables in the data set. The Variable Description should be a brief explanation of what the variable name represents.
The variables Date and Comments must be included in every data file. Comments must be the last column in the file, and includes any additional information about individual data points. All Comments for a data point must be entered on a single line, which can be no longer than 250 characters. Date should be in the format DD-MMM-YYYY (i.e. 01-Jun-1988). This format avoids confusion between Canadian and USA forms of dates.
Variables for time in Hours are to be in 24 hour format (not AM or PM) and based on Eastern Standard Time, not Daylight Savings Time. Entries should be 4 places, hours and minutes, without any punctuation (examples 0458 or 2133). Individual PIs need to responsible for making these time corrections.
Units should describe the units for the data.
Missing data shall be designated by a Missing Data Value. The value used should be noted , i.e. BLANK, period, N/A. The value -9999 should be used with caution since it can be a real value in rare cases.
(12) CALCULATIONS: Any variables that have been calculated, along with their corresponding formula(s).
(13) FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: List here the name and address of the PI, or person, most knowledgeable about the data set.
(14) OTHER DATA FILES TO REFERENCE: This is a list of other files, or work by other PIs, which you feel, may be of interest to a person looking at this file.
(15) REFERENCE CITATIONS: List in proper form both the published literature, and unpublished references, relating to this data set.
(16) FORMAT OF DATA FILE: The format of the data file should be either MS Excel (*.xls) or ASCII comma or tab-delimited with a *.txt extension.
(17) DATA AVAILABILITY STATUS: Type of Availability Status
Type 1: Data is freely available within 1-3 years with minimun restrictions.
Type 2: Exceptional data sets that are available only with written permission form the PI/investigator(s)
(18) ARCHIVE INFORMATION: The data manager will fill this in, noting when the file was received and who entered it into the data base.