Data submission

Data submissions and technical requests are administered through a Ticket System (JIRA issue and project tracking made by ATLASSIAN). For each request or submission an issue (ticket) is created which is tracked during the workflow until it is resolved.

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READ FIRST
''PANGAEA is an archive for any kind of data from earth system research and thus has no special format requirements for submissions. Data might be submitted in the authors format and will be converted to the final import and publication format by the PANGAEA editors. The data provider is kindly requested to keep the following points in mind to minimize the preparatory work prior to upload.''


 * For samples, observations and measurements made somewhere on earth, the provision of position(s) is mandatory (latitude/longitude in decimal degree).
 * If data are supplementary to a publication, the (preliminary) citation with journal title and abstract (a specific abstract to the dataset) must be added.
 * Submit ONE issue per publication supplement; several files can be attached to one issue (max. size per file = 100 MB). For larger files (or many files >20) please request an upload link for large/many files in the form of a comment in your submission ticket
 * Ideally provide titles for all your submitted datasets. A dataset title should not be the same as the title of the related publication, but should reflect what was measured, where and when
 * If data are related to a project (where PANGAEA is the designated archive) add the project acronym as label.
 * Date/Time must be provided in ISO-format (e.g. 1954-04-07T13:34:11).
 * Parameters are always accompanied by a unit.
 * Abbreviations should be explained.
 * Extended documentations may be added as plain text or pdf-file.
 * Submit data tables as excel or tab-delimited text files; specific formats (e.g. shape, netCDF, segy ...) may be added in zip-archive.
 * ... submit via the PANGAEA ticket system

Additional recommendations

 * Preferred format for data tables is TAB-delimited text files (UTF-8 encoding), submitted as ZIP-archive, or excel-format.
 * Several tables with different format should be provided on different sheets.
 * Several tables with identical format may be provided in one file (one data set below the other, event label in the 1. column).
 * Parameter name with unit must appear in the header line (or PANGAEA parameter ID).
 * Use proper event/site/sample labels, e.g. as defined during an expedition (if appropriate).
 * Format for positions (lat/long) should be decimal degree (-65.1234) (S and W are negative).
 * Provide references by its DOI or (even better) as pdf; documentations should also be provided as pdf (documents will be stored in ePIC and linked via a handle).
 * Numeric parameter columns must contain numbers only; exception see quality flags.
 * If the result of a scientific analysis is zero, the corresponding field in the data table must be filled with 0 (and not left empty).
 * Fields without data should be left empty (and NOT filled with '-', 'n/a', 'NaN', -9999 or '*' etc).
 * Multiple values separated by '-', '±', '' (ranges, values with errors, uncertainties, or alternative values in brackets) withing a single cell should be avoided. Instead, multiple columns need to be used.
 * Remove empty lines and columns; those will not be imported.
 * Avoid abbreviations.
 * Avoid redundant information.
 * Use standards as far as available
 * Care for proper geocodes
 * Use the decimal point.
 * Use the English language.

Data publication workflow
The workflow for a data publication from source to publication is similar to the submission > review > editorial > publication flow established in scientific literature. The editorial process is coordinated by the editor-in-chief and the data editors. The workflow and communication of each data submission is documented through a Ticket System.

The workflow is primarily an interaction between the (corresponding) author and the editor and consists of 6 steps:
 * 1) Data submission - the author submits data sets with description (metadata) through the Ticket System, following the submission guidelines and the data policy of their project/institute.
 * 2) Editorial review - the submission is checked by the editor-in-chief for completeness of metadata and validity/format of the data. A request will be send to the author if mandatory information is missing. Once the submission is complete and the data set accepted for publication in PANGAEA, the author is informed. Once the publication process can be started, the editor-in-chief assigns the ticket to the editor in charge.
 * 3) Data import - during a technical review, existing metadata is checked and, if necessary, additional metadata is added by the editor. Data are reformatted to fit to the PANGAEA Data model]. During this step, if necessary, tables are transposed, combined or divided, columns with metadata added (e.g. official [[event labels), etc. Through the editorial system the relations are established between metadata and data. After import, the data set is checked in browser-view by the editor. This includes, among other things, a validity check of all external links.
 * 4) Data set proof - the editor sends the data set link to the author(s), requesting for proofread. The DOI is assigned, but not yet registered ("activated"). The data set status is in "in review" at this stage.
 * 5) Corrections - Through an iterative process between author and editor the data set is edited until the final approval by the author.
 * 6) Publication - the data set status is set to "published", the DOI will be activated 4 weeks after the final editing and is than part of the official data set citation. On request of the author, a password may be set for a moratorium period or until publication of the related paper. A temporary access link with an expiry date can be granted on request of the author. Such a link can be used to share the data with individuals or groups, for example for co-authors or anonymous reviewers.

Costs
The basic operation is covered by public funding, but we have to seek for additional funds, in particular for the preparation and archiving of new data. In case that data are submitted as part of a project for which funding is available for publication, PANGAEA would appreciate a financial contribution of 500.– € (net) for a data submission (e.g. as part of the costs for Open Access publications at the DFG). Other forms of funded collaborations can be negotiated. Please contact us for further information and invoicing.

Examples of data publications
The following examples may give a first impression about the required information for data from specific scientific fields. The export formats may differ slightly. Please keep in mind, that the export format is dynamicaly produced by the relational database behind PANGAEA and thus it is NOT required to provide data submission in exactly this technical format; the content is the important part of the data submission.
 * Moorings with trap/current meter
 * Vertical oceanographic profile
 * Horizontal profile/ships track
 * Horizontal distribution of irregular distributed samples
 * Vertical profile
 * Bulk sediment parameter
 * Core logging, Physical properties
 * Hole logging
 * Mineralogy
 * Grain size
 * Pollen
 * Geochemistry
 * Porewater
 * XRF
 * Horizontal profile
 * Ships track data in general
 * Geophysical profile
 * Reflection seismic
 * Refraction seismic
 * Magnetic
 * Gravimetry
 * Profile versus relative distance
 * Speleotheme
 * Coral
 * Time series
 * Radiation
 * Biological measurements
 * Binary object (data files in various binary formats)
 * photos, images, graphics
 * seismic profiles in sgy-format
 * models
 * Maps
 * Experiments
 * ff ...